Japan in transition

•5#V'

0t \\vc llwotogiaj &

PRINCETON, N. J.

%

Purchased by the Hamill Missionary Fund.

Division

Section *

•Rgl

\

THE OLD AND THE NEW JAPAN CONTRASTED
A modern train on the Imperial railways at the foot of the ancient and sacred Mount huji

JAPAN

IN TRANSITION

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE PROGRESS
POLICY, AND METHODS OF THE JAPANESE
SINCE THEIR WAR WITH CHINA

BY

STAFFORD RANSOME

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS; RECENTLY
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE MORNING POST
IN THE FAR EAST

WITH FOUR SPECIAL MAPS BY THE AUTHOR
AND ILLUSTRATIONS

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1 8 9 9

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

Introduction ix

I. Popular Misconceptions of Japan i

II. Travelling and Accommodation 16

III. The Standing of the Foreigner 46

IV. Present Day Education 62

V. The New School of Drama 86

VI. The Position and Prospects of Christianity 99

VII. The Moral Standard 115

VIII. The Commercial Integrity of the Japanese 128

IX. International Business Relations 145

X. Modern Industrial Japan 163

XI. The Effect of the War on Foreign Relations . . . 179

XII. Politics in the Past and Present 191

XIII. Outline of Strategical Geography 205

XIV. The Question of Colonization 217

XV. Japan as an Ally 238

XVI. Our Prospects under the Revised Treaties 250

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

THE OLD AND THE NEW JAPAN CONTRASTED Frontispiece

A GEISHA AT HOME Facing p. 4

A GEISHA ORCHESTRA “ 6

A TOKIO DANCING-GIRL “ 8

THE JAPANESE BATTLE-SHIP SHIKISHIMA ...... “ 12

A SNAP-SHOT IN A VILLAGE STREET “ 20

THE REMAINS OF THE VILLAGE OF SHIMIDZU AFTER')

A FLOOD L . “ 24

HAKODATE HARBOR, IN THE HOKKAIDO J

A JAPANESE HOTEL, INTERIOR “ 26

A TEA-HOUSE, INTERIOR “ 28

COUNT OKUMA “ 60

VISCOUNT YOZO YAMAO* “ 64

THE ENGINEERING COLLEGE OF THE IMPERIAL UNI-'

VERSITY OF TOKIO*

v. . “ 70

THE LAW COLLEGE AND LIBRARY OF THE IMPERIAL

UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO*

THE SCIENCE COLLEGE OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY 'j

OF TOKIO*

IN THE QUADRANGLE OF THE ENGINEERING COLLEGE j ^

OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO* J
MR. FUKASAWA YAKICHI )

• 78

KAWAKAMI OTOJIRO )

A GROUP OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT THE IMPERIAL

UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO* ....... “ 82

ICHIKAWA DANJURO “ 88

DANJURO AS THE CHIEF OF THE FORTY-SEVEN RONINS . . “ 94

ACTRESS IN OLD-STYLE PLAY “ 96

GIRLS IN GARDEN “ Il6

V

ILLUSTRATIONS

: :l

LADY PLAYING THE KOTO

AN ACTOR DRESSED AS A YOSHIWARA WOMAN

TREATY-PORT GIRLS

PONTA, A TOKIO GEISHA

THE OFFICES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND

COMMERCE*

H.I.H. THE LATE PRINCE SANJO . . .

VISCOUNT YENOMOTO

BARON ITO

BARON NISHI

SHIMBASHI RAILWAY STATION, TOKIO .

MITSU BISHI BANK

THE NAGASAKI SHIP-BUILDING WORKS
H.I.H. THE LATE PRINCE ARISUGAWA

THE MARQUIS ITO

THE LATE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL YAMAJI

COUNT ITAGAKI

COUNT INOUYE

OFFICE OF THE KOKUMIN SHIMBUN ( THE NA TION ,
DAILY PAPER), TOKIO . .

THE OFFICE OF THE NICHI NICHI SHIMBUN (DA Y-BV
DA V NEWSPAPER), TOKIO . .

H.I.H. THE LATE PRINCE KITASHIRAKAWA

COUNT MATSUKATA

THE MARQUIS SAIGO

VISCOUNT YOSHIKAWA

ADMIRAL NIREI

MARSHAL OYAMA I

OFFICES OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE ARMY, TOKIO
THE IMPERIAL NAVAL DOCKYARD, YOKOSUKA* . .

THE NAGASAKI DOCK

JAPANESE MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY APPROACHING PORT
THUR DURING THE WAR WITH CHINA

VISCOUNT KATSURA

MARSHAL NOZU

OLD - STYLE WARFARE (TWELFTH CENTURY). TAKEDA
SHINGEN ATTACKING MOUNT MINOBU . . . .

: : :i

AR

Fac

ngp. Il8

I!

120

122

124

164

166

168

170

176

180

184

188

I96

I98

200

202

204

206

208

210

214

238

244

248

Note. — The Illustrations marked* have been reproduced by the permission of the editor
of the Engineer.

SPECIAL MAPS

PREPARED BY THE AUTHOR

EDUCATIONAL SKETCH MAP Facmg fi. 70

STRATEGICAL SKETCH MAP . . “ 198

SKETCH MAP REFERRING TO THE COLONIAL PROSPECTS OF JAPAN . . 225

EMPIRE OF JAPAN At end of book

INTRODUCTION

There are three distinct Japans in existence side
by side to-day — the old Japan, which has not wholly
died out; the new Japan, which as yet has hardly
been born, except in the spirit; and the transition
Japan, which is passing through its most critical
throes just now.

Every one of the three affords an extremely diffi-
cult study ; and, of them all, that which is the sub-
ject of this book is perhaps the most complicated.

The old Japan, in practically all its phases, has
been thoroughly thrashed out by many competent
writers, several of whom are recognized authorities
upon the subject; and had the Japan of to-day
received the same careful consideration and able
handling as the Japan of the past, there would be
but little reason for bringing out this book.

It is true that certain of the writers on the old
Japan have added, in the recent editions of their
books, chapters touching on the more modern as-
pects of the country. But the alterations in Japan-
ese methods have been so marked that it is impos-
sible to exhaust the subject satisfactorily in that way.

IX

INTRODUCTION

Vastly interesting as is the old Japan, transition
Japan is, in its way, hardly less so, though possibly
the subject may appeal to a different reading public.
But the two are so completely distinct that, in order
to do justice to the one or to the other, they must
be treated separately.

The process of transition has been so abrupt that
the reader is shocked when, at the end of a bulky
volume, dealing with Daimios, flower ceremonies,
cherry blossoms, tea-gardens, and temples, he finds
these subjects suddenly replaced by modern ord-
nance, railways, international politics, electricity,
and merchant firms. The contrast is too striking
to be either artistic or satisfactory.

On the subject of all matters Japanese the local
foreigners resident in Japan are so clearly divided
into two camps that there is always an endeavor to
class a writer on Japan in one of two categories.
He is stated either to be “pro-Japanese” or “anti-
Japanese.” If an author allows a knowledge of that
fact to affect his writings, his book is bound to be
colorless. If, on the other hand, he steers his own
course, and in dealing with his subject frankly gives
his impressions for what they are worth, he is bound
to say something from time to time to which certain
people may take exception ; for if a particular point
of view should meet with the approval of one sec-
tion of the community, another section will certain-
ly disapprove of it.

I have adopted the latter alternative in writing
this book — that is to say, I have given my own

X

INTRODUCTION

opinions without any attempt at hedging ; and while
I sometimes have had occasion to quote other writers
either for the purpose of accentuating a theory or a
fact, or of explaining the manner in which my own
opinions differ from theirs, I have done so with all
due deference to their point of view.

So much has been written of one sort and another
about Japan that a writer, in almost everything he
says, is likely to be plagiarizing or contradicting one
or another authority; and in endeavoring to throw
light on the chaotic problem of Japanese methods
his book is almost bound to appear somewhat con-
troversial and argumentative.

Japan in Transition is merely, as its name im-
plies, a book dealing with the changes which are
going on in the country just now; and I describe it
by the sub-title as being “ a Comparative Study of
the Progress, Policy, and Methods of the Japanese
since their War with China,” not because compari-
sons are made between the Japan of to-day and the
Japan of the past; for in cases where contrasts of
that sort have a place in this book they are only in-
cidental. The comparisons made are between the
methods of the Japanese to-day and the methods of
the people in other countries, in view of the fact that
Japan is endeavoring to bring herself into line with
the most advanced nations of the earth.

In drawing these comparisons, I have not imag-
ined an ideal Englishman, an ideal Frenchman, or
an ideal American, nor a combined ideal made up
of the three; I have not taken for granted an as-

XI

INTRODUCTION

sumption that we all act up to our theoretical stand-
ards of probity, morality, and enlightenment ; nor,
in cases where Japanese methods deviate from our
own, that such deviations must necessarily place the
Japanese in the wrong. I have endeavored to con-
trast and compare the ordinary methods of the
modern Japanese with the ordinary methods of the
men one finds elsewhere in the civilized world.

I cannot claim that my book is the result of a so-
journ of many years in the country, as I lived in
Japan for less than two years (part of 1896, and the
whole of 1897). That time, however, was a very
critical epoch for the people of Japan, in that the
national delirium which inevitably follows a success-
ful war was gradually subsiding, and the country on
its new lines, and endowed with its well earned but
newly born prestige, was beginning to feel its feet.

When living in the country I held a mixed man-
date from two journals — the Morning Post, for which
I. had to write a series of articles on “Japan Since
the War,” dealing with the effect of the war on that
country politically and socially; and the Engineer ,
in the columns of which I was pointing out the en-
gineering and industrial progress of Japan. The
present book summarizes, in a form less ephemeral
than must be adopted in journalism, the impressions
which I received during the time I was carrying on
that work.

In Japan in Transition I have naturally had to
go over a great deal of the ground covered by my
former articles ; and, by the courtesy of the Editor

xii

INTRODUCTION

of the Morning Post , I have been allowed to draw
somewhat freely on three of my articles on “Japan
Since the War” in writing the chapters on Politics,
Morals, and the Drama.

I have to thank the Editor of the Engineer for
allowing me to use certain photographs — notably
those representing the Yokosuka Dock-yard, a group
of students, and the Educational Buildings of the
Imperial University — which served to illustrate cer-
tain of my articles in that journal.

To my friend Professor C. D. West, of the Im-
perial University, I am indebted for several of the
photographs used in illustrating this book ; as also
to Mr. Y. Fukai, of the Kokumin Shimbun , who pro-
cured for me many of the portraits which appear in
these pages.

I would also take this opportunity of thanking
my many friends, both European and Japanese, who
so kindly assisted me with their advice when I was
working up my subject in that country.

Of that subject I can only say, speaking as one
whose branch of journalism has nearly always been
that of a foreign correspondent, and whose particu-
lar work has usually had to do with the investigation
and summing up of complicated situations in various
parts of the world, that Japan, at any time, is as
difficult a country to write about as one can find,
and that the existing conditions of that country
render the task of giving a satisfactory account of
it especially arduous.

As the chapters in this book deal with so wide a

xiii

INTRODUCTION

range of subjects, and as all sorts of side issues come
into the question from time to time, it is, perhaps,
well briefly to summarize here the line of argument
taken in this book. I am a firm believer in the
solid nature of the modern progress made by the
Japanese — politically, commercially, and industrially.
Socially speaking, I think their old methods suited
them better than those imported from the West.
Their moral instincts, though not based at all on
Western theories, are not, as a rule, of a lower order
than the average standard of the European nations.
They are, as a rule, lacking in that quality known as
modern business integrity ; but I think this is large-
ly due to a misconception as to the fundamental
principles which guide the conduct of modern
business.

In the ordinary transactions of life, at all events
away from the treaty - ports, the Japanese are still
particularly honest, even when dealing with for-
eigners.

I think that in spite of certain failings, pointed
out in due course in this book, the politicians of
Japan, generally speaking, and particularly those
who are at the head of affairs, keep their hands
cleaner than do their confreres in many of the coun-
tries which boast of a higher civilization.

I believe that, so far as the interests of various
countries can be the same, those of Great Britain,
the United States, and Japan are, and must be, for
many years to come, identical so far as a Far East-
ern policy is concerned ; for those three Powers are

XIV

INTRODUCTION

alone in disapproving of the dismemberment of
China, and in respecting international law in that
part of the world.

A triple alliance of these three nations would be
invaluable in the interests of Far Eastern commerce
and peace ; and there is no doubt that we should
find in the Japanese not only efficient but perfectly
honorable allies.

I consider the most marked trait in the Japanese
character to be their feverish anxiety to acquire, and
wonderful capacity for absorbing, knowledge of any
sort ; and I take a more optimistic view than many
well-known authorities with regard to their capabili-
ties for giving practical effect to such knowledge.

Certain writers, presumably basing their stand-
point on the many mistakes made by the Japanese
in the application of their modern methods, have
often assumed that the Japanese are not so efficient
in practice as they are in theory. This is so at the
present day. I do not think, however, that practical
capacity is wanting, but rather that, at their present
educational stage, they have not been able to give as
much attention to the practical side of their mod-
ern training as to the theoretical.

In the rush for modern knowledge it was a ques-
tion, not as to what would be the best subjects to
devote their attention to, but as to which among
those subjects could be omitted with the least in-
convenience ; consequently, practice has been tem-
porarily shelved in favor of the headlong pursuit of
theory.

XV

INTRODUCTION

The Japanese are credited, and possibly with per-
fect justice, with possessing the quality of self-con-
fidence to a somewhat exaggerated degree. Well,
assuming that such is the case, I do not think that
we can logically censure them on this account. For,
after all, self-confidence is a good old Anglo-Saxon
vice, and it is to be presumed that neither English-
men nor Americans would be unjust enough to
maintain that it was precisely their lack of this par-
ticular characteristic that has enabled them to make
of Great Britain and the United States the two most
progressive and industrially important countries in
the world.

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

JAPAN

IN TRANSITION

CHAPTER I

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

There is perhaps no country in the world which
has been more misrepresented by the foreigner to
the foreigner than has the Land of the Rising Sun,
and the reasons for this are very obvious. Japan is
at once the most difficult country to analyze accu-
rately, and the most easy to write about superficially.

The journalist who, after a six hours’ sojourn
there, has not already been able to find something
which would pass muster as interesting “copy,”
must indeed be a poor hand at his trade ; though
whether articles written under such conditions are
likely to be of any value to the student is a matter
of conjecture.

Japan appears to exercise some mysterious in-
fluence which not only attracts the pen of the ama-
teur, but which seems to have the effect of drawing
the professional writer out of his legitimate element.

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Thus the poet, on arriving in that country, suddenly
becomes an exponent of character; the theatrical
critic a censor of morals ; the religious tract-maker
an authority on art; and the compiler of railway
“ puffs ” a novelist.

Some of the books thus turned out have occa-
sionally been interesting enough to readers who
have no knowledge of the country; and, as occasion-
ally the writers in question have been well known in
other spheres of literature, their books have some-
times met with a more ready sale than has been the
case with many of the valuable works written by real
students of Japan.

Under such circumstances it is only natural that
foreigners generally should often imbibe weird and
distorted notions with regard to the Japanese char-
acter; and the more especially as these writers have
frequently based their notions of Japan and the
Japanese on what they have seen in the treaty-ports.

Now life in the treaty-ports is so absolutely unlike
the life in any other parts of the country that hardly
any particulars of the former will be likely to hold
good with regard to the latter. It would be just as
reasonable to describe a book dealing with “ life in
Gibraltar ” as an exhaustive treatise on Spain, as it
is, when reading books about treaty-port doings, to
accept them as throwing any light whatever on Japan
proper.

Treaty-port people, and especially treaty-port jour-
nals, tell us that all Japanese are bad. Well, once
upon a time a very learned monarch said in his wrath

2

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

that all men were liars; and it is probable that the
one sweeping statement is as accurate as the other ;
for the treaty-port resident is in a continual state of
wrath, or rather of irritation, with regard to Japanese
matters. His interests in the country being, as a
rule, purely of a commercial nature, he is naturally
somewhat sore when he finds that the new gener-
ation of Japanese are increasingly able to carry on
their trade without his assistance. For there is no
doubt that the treaty-port foreigner in days gone by
created and built up the international trade of the
country; and he is perhaps right in his estimate of
the treaty-port Japanese with whom he comes in daily
contact.

In order to understand the position, let us try and
imagine that there is established in England a treaty-
port, say at Wapping Old Stairs, or other conven-
ient locality for shipping; and that in pursuit of
their business a highly respectable class of Japanese
tradesmen have established themselves there; that
they have built their own houses, live their own
lives, wear their own clothes, are under their own
jurisdiction, and do not bother to learn our language
(for the treaty-port foreigner in Japan, with very
rare exceptions, never troubles to learn Japanese).
Let us further assume that this imaginary Japanese
community in England are in the habit of publish-
ing daily newspapers violently denouncing every-
thing that is British, simply because the methods of
the English dock-laborers, cabmen, interpreters, and
runners, who hang around their settlement for the

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

purpose of getting what they can out of the resi-
dents, are not particularly scrupulous or high-mind-
ed. We should say at once that the criticism was
unfair, and that the Japanese at Wapping were not
in a position to form an accurate estimate of Eng-
land and the English ; that they were basing their
opinions of the former on a place which, by reason
of its being outside British jurisdiction, was really
not England at all ; and, of the latter, on people who
could not be looked upon as representative speci-
mens of English people generally. We should add
that very few respectable Englishmen, if they could
afford to do otherwise, would care to live in Wap-
ping under treaty-port conditions, as they would pre-
fer residing among their compatriots in a part of
England where extra-territoriality did not exist.

If we transpose this picture, we shall find that it
holds good in Japan to-day. The better class Jap-
anese never live in the treaty-ports of that country
if they can possibly do otherwise. And it is on ac-
count of all these conditions that the treaty-port es-
timate of Japanese character and methods is mis-
leading.

The freshly arrived foreigner, however, is bound
to base his first impressions of Japan on treaty-port
surroundings, as he naturally lands at one or other
of these places, and very often practically gets no
farther during his stay; or, if he does, his journeying
merely takes the form of flying trips to the stere-
otyped places in the interior, where treaty-port peo-
ple and tourists go ; and he gravitates back to, and

4

A GEISHA AT HOME

By the Genroku-Kwan

t

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

makes his headquarters within, concession limits in
one of the coast towns, where he finds the greatest
number of his countrymen, the greatest selection of
Western amusements, the best quarters, and the best
food ; and where, above all, he can make himself
understood.

Most people who visit Japan arrange their sojourn
in that country on the lines just described; and the
man who does will tell his friends his impressions
as seen through treaty-port spectacles. He will say
that the Japanese are devoid of integrity and moral-
ity ; that they are grasping, unreliable, rude, and even
dangerous. For he has read this every day in his
treaty-port journal ; and he has been overcharged by
his treaty-port rikisha boy, who is possibly the most
reputable sample of a Japanese with whom he has
come in contact.

Another class of foreigner who is apt to mislead
people at home on the subject of Japan, but in quite
another direction, is he who endeavors to “ Japonify ”
(I did not invent that word) himself at short notice,
and without being able to speak the language. He
becomes enamoured of the country, and possibly of
some one in it, and is rapturously maudlin in telling
us all about it.

To such a man Japan is peopled with dear little
giggling dolls, living in dear little miniature houses
made of “card-board.” He eats fairy food out of
miniature dishes ; hangs the graceful costume of
the country on him as if the kimono were a towel
and he a clothes-horse ; he strains the sinews of his

5

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

legs in squatting on the floor, and tells us that he
fears his head would knock a hole in the fragile ceil-
ing if he were to stand upright ; and so it would, if
he were eight or nine feet high and his head were
not softer than the wood-work. He laughs in inno-
cent glee at it all, as he lets the rice fall from his
chop-sticks on to the spotless tatarni, for he is in such
a delightful little shallow-minded, light-hearted im-
moral paradise. He hugs himself in the belief that
he is living among laughing children again, and
he has no thought for the morrow; for he has not
grasped the fact that his companions are bored with
it all, but that etiquette and business exigencies
oblige them to appear amused at his eccentricities;
he does not understand that, if their laugh is genu-
ine, they are laughing at him rather than with him,
and that it is he in reality who is the child. Mean-
while his treaty-port guide no doubt is making terms
with the landlady of the “card-board” house as to the
extent to which it will be safe to run up the bill, and
as to how much commission is to be reserved out of
that amount for himself.

The above enthusiastic individual, who has solved
the Japanese problem to his own satisfaction, will
tell us that he has “ eaten the lotus,” when, in plain
English, he has merely become very silly. Such silli-
ness, however, is infectious, and his graphic recital
of what he terms his “ Adventures in the Land of
the Rising Sun” has often had the effect of causing
others to visit Japan with the express purpose of

endeavoring to emulate him.

6

GEISHA ORCHESTRA

>

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

Of the changes which are taking place in Japan
people hold very varied views, and all that an indi-
vidual author has a right or is able to do is to give
expression to his own personal impressions on the
subject, and that with all due respect to the opinions
of others. Japan, of course, is being transformed,
or, rather, is transforming herself, from her Oriental
to our Western methods; but this does not mean
that the old Japan has altogether gone, or will
ever altogether go. I am aware that in stating
this I am taking a diametrically opposite view to
that held by most of the acknowledged authori-
ties on the country ; but my personal conviction
is that although Daimios, Shoguns, and feudal-
ism are things of the past, and although modern
education may have shaken the beliefs in ancient
superstitions in the minds of the Japanese of to-day,
yet his veneration for old traditions is as strong
now as it ever was, and he is as purely Japanese in
his tastes and convictions. His thoughts — a large
proportion of his thoughts, at all events — have turned
to things Western, and he has realized that it is
essential to the future well-being of his country that
he should not only think about but thoroughly un-
derstand modern methods. This is not necessarily
because he likes them, nor because he considers
them to be immeasurably superior to his own, but
because he has grasped the fact that to preserve
his own country intact he must make the foreigner
respect him, and that to effect this purpose he must
bring his country into line with Western nations.

7

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

There is another very powerful reason, viz., that a
Japanese as a rule is by nature and instinct a stu-
dent, and a very profound student. He is willing
and anxious to study any subject, both with regard
to its theory and its practice, not necessarily with a
view of adopting the policy laid down therein, but in
order to put himself in the position of being able to
adopt it, either in whole or in part, should he feel
that his so doing would be advantageous to himself
or to his country.

There are people who hold that the so-called civ-
ilization of Japan is only a thin veneer, which will
neither bear much investigation nor the test of time ;
that all that is being done has been due to a vain-
glorious feeling, brought about more particularly by
the success of the late war with China. But such
is not the case; for although one may call the Japan
of the present day an artificial Japan, in most senses
of the word, still the Japanese, who are thorough in
everything, are thorough even in their artificiality.

The progress that is being made by the country —
if we assume that by “ progress ” is meant the adop-
tion of Western methods — may be of an artificial
nature, but in the long-run it will be found that
contact with Europeans will not transform the Jap-
anese into a people with European instincts, but
that they will have assimilated and absorbed into
their nature so much of our habits as they think
advisable.

The local foreign journals are fond of maintaining
that the Japanese are merely “aping the foreigner,”

8

A TOKIO DANCING-GIRL

By the Genroku-Kwan

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

but that is hardly the right expression ; for to “ ape ”
us would mean to copy us without reason or intelli-
gence. It is true that the Japanese often wear foreign
clothes when going about their business and when
in contact with a foreigner, either because they find
such clothes more practical for certain work ; or, if
they are in a foreign country, because they know it
is the correct thing to do. They use Western build-
ings and furniture for their modern offices, as they
have found it impossible to conduct modern business
under Japanese conditions. They learn to speak
our language, because this is essential to the new
policy of their country. But at home they revert
naturally to their methods of life, to their own clothes,
and to their own language.

One of the most glaring and oft-repeated of popu-
lar fallacies about Japan is that which asserts that
everything in that country is little.

Undoubtedly the average stature of the Japanese
is somewhat less than that of Europeans and Amer-
icans, and their houses and utensils strike us as being
somewhat smaller than our own.

Most of the earlier writers noticed and noted that
fact, and others took it up until it became a point of
honor among foreign scribes never to mention any-
thing Japanese without coupling with it a belittling
adjective of some sort. “These delightful little peo-
ple; their tiny little hands, their polite little man-
ners, their dear little doll’s-houses, their funny little
waddling walk,” and so on, and so on, ad nauseam.
The general littleness of Japan was as firmly accepted

9

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

by the foreigner, and as grossly exaggerated as, for
instance, are the alleged protruding teeth and red
Dundreary whiskers which characterize the English-
man of to-day in French caricature.

There came a time, however, when it was discov-
ered that there were other subjects of interest about
the country than the question of dimensions of the
people and the things, so the “littleness of Japan”
had a holiday for a time, until it was rediscovered as
an astounding fact by Sir Edwin Arnold.

In excusing himself for employing the word “lit-
tle ” so often, that talented author urged as an ex-
tenuating circumstance that everything in that coun-
try was little, except the shrimps, which were colossal,
and the sea and the mountains.

This was enough for the purposes of the super-
ficial writer, who, as a rule, and especially if he had
never been to Japan in his life, conscientiously ap-
plied the wrong end of the telescope to his eye, firmly
shut the other, and adapted as the starting-point of
his thesis the axiom that everything in Japan was
small.

With regard to the theory of the miniature houses
in Japan, I should think that the Japanese living in
Tokio to-day must have in the way of floor area to
their houses a great deal more space per man than
has the Londoner in his native city. The Japanese
houses look small to us because they do not run
into many stories as a rule, and because the rooms
are not nearly so high as ours. But if Japanese rooms
are two or three feet lower than ours, this is not due

IO

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

to the average stature of the Japanese people being
two or three feet less than that of the Englishman, as
the reasoning of certain writers would seem to sug-
gest, but because the normal attitude of a Japanese
when inside a room is a sitting one, and he sits on
his heels on the floor.

The spirit which tempts people to underrate the
size of everything that is Japanese has betrayed
more than one foreign writer into describing even
the Japanese railways as being built on the micro-
scopic principle, and the trains as being composed
of little toy engines and carriages ; but when we
come down to plain, unvarnished fact we have to
admit that the railway gauge of Japan is three feet
six inches, which is nearly three inches wider than
that of about half the railways in India, in which
full-grown Europeans travel comfortably, and that
the inhabitants of Ceylon are clamoring to have
their gauge reduced to that of the narrow Indian
gauge. Thus it is plain that there is nothing much
in the above belittling argument.

In olden days there were many excuses for a
literature based on what may be called the “ com-
parative dimensions” principle about Japan, for
then, except for the temples, the statues of the
Daibutzu, the processions, the umbrellas, the wres-
tlers, and the head-dresses and sashes of the women,
most things material were worked out on a smaller
scale there than in Europe.

At the present day, however, we are bound to
admit that their army, navy, mercantile marine, rail-

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

way systems, public buildings, educational, political,
financial, commercial, and industrial organizations,
their asiprations and their doings, must all be ac-
counted large when compared with kindred institu-
tions in the average European country of to-day.

Even the difference in average stature between
European and Japanese may be lessened or done
away with after a generation or two of youths have
been brought up on regular drill, lawn-tennis, base-
ball, rowing, and bicycling, and nurtured on a diet
which has an increasing tendency towards stimulat-
ing foods.*

It is, I understand, mainly in the length of leg
that the Japanese are deficient from the point of
view of our European anthropometrical ideal ; and
this is said to be due to their native method of sit-
ting down, which tells against leg development.
There is a growing tendency to adopt chairs, at all
events during the greater portion of the day, in
business circles.

Another extremely well-worn fallacy with regard
to the Japanese character, but one which fortunately
is beginning to wear itself out, is that they are a
frivolous people; and, to quote Sir Edwin Arnold
once more, “ cannot look upon anything seriously.”
I cannot understand how any student of Japan can
draw such a conclusion, although their methods of
seriousness may not invariably follow on the lines
of ours. The Japanese have, it is true, a keen sense

* Meat now is included in the naval diet.

12

THE JAPANESE BATTLE-SHIP SHIKISH1MA

(The most powerful war-ship in the world. Built at the Thames Iron-works)

Drawn by Bernard F. Gribble

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

of humor and of the ridiculous, and the spirit of bur-
lesque and caricature is strongly developed in their
nature; but in their own particular way I believe
that they look on the problems of life at least as
seriously as the rest of the world, and that, in their
endeavors to probe and solve them satisfactorily,
they are often far more persevering and thorough
than the people of almost any other nation.

Generally speaking, it may be said that treaty-
port pessimism on the one hand, and the superficial
and enthusiastic writer on the other, have been re-
sponsible for the propagation of most of the many
popular fallacies which are generally accepted abroad
with regard to the character and doings of the
Japanese. But there is a third factor which per-
haps may tend to throw the foreigner at home some-
what off the scent in his endeavor to estimate the
Japanese of to-day, and that is the impressions he
draws from those Japanese whom he sees in his
own country.

We must bear in mind that the Japanese who
come to England and America from time to time,
while being representative of all that is best in the
way of progressive Japan from the point of view
of the Westernizing of their country, are as a rule
picked men, and are nearly always highly educated,
even from the foreigner’s point of view.

Such men are sent abroad with a set purpose to
learn something that the foreigner can teach them,
and are consequently chosen on account of their
intelligence and aptitude, so that they may absorb

r3

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

as rapidly and effectually as possible the particular
knowledge which is to form the subject of their
investigations. They are living during the time
that they are with us an artificial existence, sur-
rounded by Westerners and Western methods.
They have, with that wonderful tact which is one
of the most striking traits in the Japanese char-
acter, adapted themselves for the time being, and
apparently without effort, to our customs and our
prejudices. Therefore we must not look on them
quite as representing accurately the ordinary Jap-
anese as one finds them in their own country, for the
surroundings and conditions are so different as to
make comparison impossible.

With all these difficulties, natural and otherwise,
in the way of a correct analysis, the visitor has
every excuse for drawing inaccurate conclusions
with regard to Japan ; and it is with just cause that
the Japanese complain of the misrepresentation of
their country and their methods so frequently made
by the foreigner. On the other hand, however,
they have been extremely fortunate in the treat-
ment they have received at the hands of many
thoroughly competent and experienced writers.

With such exponents as Rein, Mitford, Satow,
Brinkley, Hearne, and Chamberlain, to say nothing
of earlier authors, it must be admitted that the
mythology, history, habits, character, literature,
scenery, geography, poetry, science, art, and in-
dustries of that country — in fact, all the phases of
life which go to make up the old Japan — have been

14

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS OF JAPAN

fully and extremely carefully dealt with. In fact,
few countries, and certainly no Asiatic countries,
have attracted the pen of so many able exponents
as has Japan. U nfortunately, however, there have
been so many writers who cannot be classed in
that category, that the searcher after knowledge is
apt to find it a difficult matter to arrive at a deter-
mination as to which is which.

CHAPTER II

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

Nine people out of ten who go to Japan land in
the first instance at Yokohama or Nagasaki, both
of which places have been immortalized times out
of number by writers of many nations. The opin-
ions concerning those places vary very widely. As
a rule, the man who wishes to make a study of
the country does not care for the treaty-ports, for
he has come to Japan to learn something of the
Japanese people and their methods, and the treaty-
ports will not help him in any way to obtain that
knowledge. The casual visitor, however, usually
makes one or other of those places his headquarters,
and from time to time runs into the country over
the regular routes which are followed by tourists,
along all of which he finds accommodation which,
if not first-class, is at all events passable, and suffi-
ciently Western to make real discomfort almost an
impossibility.

The European hotels in the treaty-ports can only
be classed as being good in that they are, as a rule,
somewhat better than those which one finds at the
ports in other countries east of India, and this is
not saying much for them. The best hotels run on

16

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

European lines in Japan are found in certain of the
big holiday resorts in the interior, such as Miya-
noshita and Nikko, and are owned and managed by
Japanese. Such good hotels, however, can very
easily be numbered on the fingers of one hand.
The finest hotel on the European style, as far as
appearance is concerned, is the Imperial Hotel at
Tokio. It is owned and run by a Japanese com-
pany, and subsidized by the Imperial household,
but is so eccentrically managed that, while possess-
ing all the features which go to make up first-class
accommodation, in the shape of good rooms, good
furniture, and good cooking, it lacks just that knowl-
edge on the part of its directors the possession of
which would transform it from a rather uncomfort-
able place of abode into an excellent one.

As a matter of fact, the Imperial Hotel was estab-
lished by the Japanese for the purpose of affording
a place where official and other receptions on Euro-
pean lines could be held, and dinners given as occa-
sion demanded, and the ordinary visitor who puts
up there does so at his own risk. He finds plenty
of managers and clerks who are civil enough, but he
will find that his instructions are ignored, his letters
mislaid, and his bell unanswered. He finds plenty
of servants, through whom he will have to elbow his
way in the passages and public rooms ; and should
he require to play billiards, he must push them from
the table. He finds a splendid dining-room, attended
without any system, and a good though limited bill
of fare, which, to his dismay, is identical every day.

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

I think that the transition Japan is exemplified
in its very worst phases at the Imperial Hotel in
Tokio; for while no doubt everybody about the
place is doing what he believes to be the right
thing, the people connected with it have not yet
learned to understand the foreigner. They have
fallen into the error — an error which is not uncom-
mon in Japan just now among people who, having
no personal acquaintance with foreign countries,
endeavor to assume foreign ways — of believing that,
because we are less ceremonious in our manner than
they, they should in dealing with us divest their
manner of any sort of courtesy. As the English-
man who, without a thorough understanding of
Japanese etiquette, endeavors to adopt their style
invariably makes himself ridiculous, so those Japan-
ese who mistake our comparatively abrupt ways for
a want of courtesy, and endeavor to follow our ex-
ample, appear to us to be merely boorish and rude.

It is a pity that the Imperial Hotel is not better
managed, for it is here that a very large percentage
of the foreign visitors acquire their first impressions
of Japan and the Japanese after leaving the treaty-
ports. Such as it is, however, the Imperial Hotel is
almost the only hostelry on “foreign” lines worthy
of the name in the immense metropolis of Japan.

The reasons why the casual visitor stays in the
treaty-ports, and only visits such places in the in-
terior as may be termed treaty-port haunts, are —
firstly, that he cannot make himself understood else-
where ; and, secondly, that he finds a difficulty, which

18

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

is as a rule an insurmountable one, in living for any
length of time in Japanese houses and on Japanese
food.

Then, again, there is plenty to interest him for a
time inside the beaten track without going farther
afield. If I were called upon to offer advice to the
flying visitor, I should recommend him to stick to
such places while he is in the country, unless he
happens to be able to travel with some one, other
than a professional guide, who knows Japan, speaks
the language, and can arrange to supplement the
Japanese diet with European necessaries from time
to time.

Of life in the treaty-ports, I can only say that as
a rule the people who live there dislike doing so ;
or, at all events, it is their general habit to say that
they wish they were not living in Japan.

But, except geographically speaking, they are not
in Japan, for the daily routine of the foreigner in
the treaty -ports has nothing in common with life
elsewhere in that country. It is as accurate a re-
production of life in Europe and America as can be
made by so cosmopolitan a community. That the
reproduction is not a very faithful one is, under the
circumstances, only to be expected, when we take
into consideration the conditions of the case. And
the most that can be said of it from the point of
view of a stranger is that the people have tried to
make the conditions of life as bearable as possible,
and with considerable success.

I got into terribly hot water when out there for

T9

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

mentioning in one of my articles that the treaty-
port communities were of a mixed nature, and I
was told that this statement implied that they con-
tained no gentlefolks. This was not my intention,
for among the residents are many of birth, educa-
tion, and wealth ; and as trading communities go,
those of the treaty-ports may be described as being
of a distinctly creditable standard. But it is difficult
to speak of a community drawn from the people of
every country of the earth, beginning with Euro-
peans and Americans, and finishing up with China-
men and mixed Asiatic breeds, and composed of
every grade of society, between the professional man
and opulent trader on the one hand, and on the
other the long-shore loafer and the hanger-on, as
otherwise than very mixed.

The visitor who, wearied with a plethora of
temples and Daibutzu, and of a fish and rice diet,
finds himself back among his own countrymen in
the treaty-ports has occasion — an occasion, by the
way, of which he rarely avails himself — to thank
these residents, from the bottom of his heart, for
providing him with the necessaries and luxuries of
life, for which he has longed in vain when up-
country.

Though, in the treaty-ports or elsewhere, one does
not find much in the way of really good hotel ac-
commodation, many of the residents have charming
and extremely well-appointed houses ; for the man
who has command of even a moderate supply of
money can surround himself with many, if not most,

20

SNAP-SHOT IN A VILLAGE STREET

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

of the minor luxuries which go to make life pleasant.
The clubs, too, are very comfortable.

Most of the usual sports are indulged in freely,
with the exception of polo, and there are occasional
pony races, though these are not up to the standard
of those one comes across in many other parts of the
Far East. There is no hunting, very little shooting
is obtainable now, and good fishing is also scarce, but
the yachting and boating are excellent.

As, however, I am not writing a treaty-port guide-
book, I do not propose to deal at greater length with
the stereotyped resorts of the tourist, my object in
this chapter being to point out to the foreigner, in
view of the forthcoming opening up of the country,
a few of the features of travel and accommodation
which go to make up the conditions with which he
is likely to meet in travelling about Japan proper,
more or less on his own account, at the present
day.

It is usually maintained, and very rightly so, that
to acquire a knowledge of the Japanese language,
even moderately well, is a question of many years of
hard study. It is true that one learned author
stated that he had accomplished this task after a
few months’ application, but I cannot for the life
of me understand how he did it.

The ordinary person finds the study not only an
extremely laborious and lengthy task, but one which,
when entered upon seriously, has a faculty for ab-
sorbing, or rather blotting out, all other questions
for the time being.

21

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

But between mastering the Japanese language, in
the proper sense of the word, and acquiring a sort of
jargon, which can be perfectly well understood for
the purposes of the ordinary requirements of life,
there is a very wide difference; and there is no rea-
son why any person of ordinary intelligence should
not, without any great effort, accomplish the latter
feat in two or three months from his arrival.

In undergoing the process, however, he must be
prepared to remain out of touch with Europeans, or
nearly so, and to run the risk of being considerably
bored at times.

The easiest method of acquiring this sort of prac-
tical smattering of Japanese is to begin by learning
that simple and comparatively modern form of writ-
ing known as Katakana , which is, in fact, a phonetic
alphabet, or syllabary, containing just under fifty char-
acters. This is easily accomplished, and a knowledge
of it will enable one to grasp the way in which Jap-
anese words are built up, thereby not only materi-
ally assisting the memory with regard to words and
phrases, but robbing the Anglo - Japanese phrase-
book, which one purchases in the ordinary course,
of most of its terrors.

When one glances at such a book for the first
time, and learns that the shortest way of saying
“I” in respectable Japanese is “ Watakushi wa,” and
that to change that simple pronoun into the plural
“we” it is necessary to add two more syllables to the
above five, the embryo student may well be excused
for standing aghast at the appalling nature of the

22

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

task he had thought of setting himself, and, indeed,
for turning tail then and there.

If he masters Katakana, however, he will see that
a great deal of the length of the words in his book
is due to the fact that we are obliged, when trying to
convey their sound by Roman characters, to use a
great many letters.

The nature of the practical smattering of Japanese
that one may learn in the manner above explained
will, of course, not be correct, not even at all gram-
matical; but it will suffice for the requirements of
the man who is feeling his way in the interior, and
he will improve as he goes. The Japanese are won-
derfully quick at grasping a foreigner’s meaning, as
long as he says his say quietly and does not bully
them. If he strings together a number of the sub-
stantives which should have a place in his sentence,
and applies somewhere or other the required verb,
preferably in its root form, and if his pronunciation
is within a thousand miles of what it should be, he
will be able to make himself understood as a rule.
The least sign, however, of blustering or of losing his
temper will spoil the situation, and he may rave to
any extent he likes to no purpose whatever.

Assuming that a foreigner possessed of the above
amount of knowledge of the Japanese language, ac-
companied by a boy who does not understand Eng-
lish, and armed with his passport, should set out on
his travels in the interior, he need have no very seri-
ous trouble in finding his way about, as long as he is
in no particular hurry.

23

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

A great deal has been said to the discredit of the
Japanese professional guides, but I do not think, as
interpreters go, that they are worse than any others.
It is far preferable, however, to do without them, if
possible, except within the regular tourist limits, on
account of the extreme dislike in which they are
held by the hotel people in purely Japanese places.
This dislike is due to the fact that when a guide ac-
companies a party, he usually manages to retain a
great portion of the money which would have formed
the innkeeper’s legitimate profits.

With railway travelling in Japan one has no diffi-
culty, provided always that earthquakes or floods
have not damaged or destroyed a portion of the line.
There are seldom accidents from any other cause.

People have got into the habit of exaggerating the
slowness of Japanese trains. They are, as a matter
of fact, a good deal faster than the trains of Norway
and similarly mountainous countries, and their mean
speed, including goods trains, is about equal to that
of the narrow-gauge lines in India.

There are no sleeping-cars on the Japanese lines,
and consequently night travelling is not particularly
comfortable. And the passenger cannot procure for
love or money, anywhere along the line, the pro-
verbial cast-iron sandwich so dear to the travelling
Englishman’s heart, and, for the matter of that, to
his pocket. Excellent beer and excellent lemonade,
made in the country, are, however, obtainable wher-
ever railways go; but, as far as solid food is con-
cerned, one must put up with the native luncheon-

24

THE REMAINS OF THE VILLAGE OF SHIMIDZU AFTER A FLOOD

HAKODATE HARBOR, IN THE HOKKAIDO

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

boxes, which are sold in pairs, the one containing
rice, and the other an assortment of fish, omelette,
seaweed, and beans. The whole outfit, including
the boxes and the inevitable chopsticks, costs only
a penny or two.

On nearly all the lines the tickets bear the names
of the departure and arrival stations in Roman char-
acters; and in the stations the practice of printing
these names in English is also general.

Baggage is checked on the American system,
which is worked very efficiently. With regard to
the cost of travelling by railway, one can go first-
class for a very long trip for a shilling. This is
partly due to the low price per mile, and partly to
the low number of miles per hour.

In several of the big provincial towns one finds
hotels said to be conducted on the foreign principle,
and certain Japanese hotels have a “ foreign ” side.
The European accommodation in such places is,
as a rule, terrible. The rooms are dirty, the beds
are rickety, the bedclothes are apparently seldom
washed, and the tables and chairs are seldom ca-
pable of standing on more than two legs at a time.

When I first went to Japan I could not under-
stand how on the “foreign” side of the Japanese
hotels the accommodation could be so inferior, when
the Japanese portion was kept scrupulously clean.
One would naturally think that a people whose
houses were so spotless would revolt at having a
portion of their premises in a filthy condition. But,
as explained to me by the landlord of one of these

25

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

hybrid establishments, “ Foreigners are dirty by
nature. They go about their houses in their boots,
and consequently they cannot wish to have their
rooms kept in proper condition.”

This worthy host had never been out of his
country, and possibly never to a treaty-port.

When a foreigner arrives at one of these half-
and-half hotels, he is invariably pressed to take up
his quarters in the European portion of it; firstly,
because it is assumed that he will prefer such ac-
commodation; and secondly, because until the peo-
ple of the house know him they take it for granted
that he will disorganize their routine. They expect
him to walk about in his boots, to make them put a
chair in his room, the legs of which chair will dig
holes in the matting; to want all sorts of things
which are not at all suited to the accommodation,
and to insist on soaping himself in the general bath.

When an individual foreigner is known, however,
and it is found that he does not want to indulge in
such eccentricities, he is, as a rule, welcomed, or, at
all events, tolerated.

There is another reason why the people of the
house wish to place the foreigner in the foreign
j quarter, and that is that they can charge a higher
price for accommodating him there.

Many strangers to the country do not understand
the method of “ tipping,” which is an essential feat-
ure in Japanese hotel life. This question of giving
chadai , as it is called, is one of the main difficulties
which the verdant foreigner travelling in Japan has

26

JAPANESE HOTEL, INTERIOR

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

to face. If he has a guide, he will be told by him
what to pay in this way ; in which case the guide,
who handles the money, will probably keep most of
it for himself. If he has no guide, he does not know
what to give, and offers a modest gratuity, as he
would elsewhere, taking as his stand-point that if the
bill is low the tip should be proportionately small.
This is merely following out in a logical manner
our system at home of giving a smaller gratuity in
a second-class hotel than we should in a first-class
one.

I have heard the chadai described as an extortion,
and to the newly arrived foreigner it has every ap-
pearance of being such.

It was, however, the most just of all systems for a
country conducted on the lines of the Japan of the
past, though it will hardly adapt itself to the Japan
of the future. In these transition days, when Euro-
pean theories, if not methods, are partially under-
stood by the business classes even in the interior,
its effect is especially peculiar.

In days gone by the Japanese innkeeper made a
small charge for the food he supplied, which charge
was presumably assumed to be the cost price, or
thereabouts, of the articles supplied. He made no
charge for his rooms or for anything else. The
guest, on arriving, made a present of money to the
house and another to the servants, and the value of
these presents was determined by the social rank of
the giver and the class of accommodation he looked
for. If the sum were large, he was given good

27

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

rooms and was well looked after, and if it were
small his quarters and his attendance were in pro-
portion.

Among Japanese in Japan the system worked well,
for the social rank of a guest was at once patent to
the host. Now, however, the foreigner comes to
these places, and the host knows nothing of his
rank, except that he has a notion that all foreigners
should be very wealthy. If, therefore, after spend-
ing a day and a night in his house, and receiving a
bill amounting to say two shillings, the foreigner
should offer a gratuity of a shilling, the host, whose
profit in the ordinary course would be made out of
the chadai , may be excused if he feels disappointed
and does not wish to see his guest again.

It is now understood by some innkeepers that
foreigners look to pay more for their accommoda-
tion and less as a gratuity, and they are sometimes
charged accordingly. In these transition days,
however, the unfortunate foreigner does not know
whether he is to be treated as such in his bill, or
whether he is expected to make a handsome pres-
ent on arriving and be presented with a nominal
bill for his food when he leaves.

The first time I came face to face with a diffi-
culty of this sort was when, a few months after my
arrival, I was spending some days up-country. The
bill presented to me on leaving was a ridiculously
small one, and, as my knowledge of Japanese was
of the crudest, I was glad to apply to a Japanese
university student, who spoke a little English, for

28

TEA-HOUSE, INTERIOR

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

information as to what I should give to the house
and to the servants.

“ How much did you give them on arriving ?” he
asked me.

“ Nothing,” I replied.

“ What is your social position ?” he queried.

I told him ; and he said, “ The earnings of people
who follow that calling in Japan are not, as a rule,
high, but of late years men of good position are con-
nected with newspapers. Are you well off?”

I replied, modestly.

“ Then I should give them . . . ,” he said, naming
a figure about three times that of my bill. I was
rather surprised.

Shortly after the above incident I had occasion
to travel up the country with a very rich Japanese
gentleman. He had with him one or two friends,
and I noticed that wherever he went he and all of
us were treated with the greatest respect. The best
of rooms and the best of food were forthcoming,
and, as he had asked me to accompany him pro-
fessionally, to advise him on an engineering matter
in which he was interested, I was his guest. The
first night we put up at one of the best provincial
hotels in Japan. It possessed a “foreign” quarter
of a sort, and I elected to keep with my friends on
the Japanese side. On leaving, I asked one of this
gentleman’s friends whether it would be the right
thing for me to offer some gratuity to the house,
and he told me that it would not be accepted if I
did.

29

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Some months afterwards I happened to be in the
same town, and alone. Remembering my former
excellent reception, I went to the same hotel. I
was strongly urged by the hotel-keeper to go to the
foreign quarters, and on my refusing to do so I was
shown into a most comfortless little Japanese room.
By this time I had begun to understand in some
degree the complicated etiquette of the Japanese
hotel. Wrapping up in two separate packets of
tissue - paper certain yen bills, one being a gift to
the house and the other to the servants, and, as
is usual when giving a present, scrawling on them
the simplest of Japanese hieroglyphics, signifying
“common stuff” or “rubbish,” I placed them on the
floor. The servant took them up and left me.
Shortly afterwards the landlady appeared with the
usual presents on a tray, and the receipt for the
chadai.

She said the sum I had given was excessive (it
was perhaps rather large, because I felt that on the
occasion of my previous visit I had not been al-
lowed to pay for anything). She could not under-
stand, she said, how her servants had shown me
into so dirty ( kitanai ) a room (it was extremely
clean, as a matter of fact, though small), and that she
feared that they had no room worthy of me in the
house. As I knew that a few months previously
the Mikado and his suite in passing between Tokio
and Kioto had engaged this very hotel, the genuine
nature of this deprecatory estimate of the available
accommodation became apparent. I said that a

30

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

room similar to the one I had had before would
suit me ; and when they realized that it was I who
had been travelling with Mr. X. (my former friend),
I was not only placed in apartments with an area
which in a London hotel would have been con-
sidered amply large enough to accommodate half
a dozen people, but I had extreme difficulty in get-
ting left to myself for a moment during the whole
of my sojourn. When at last I thought I had got
free from them all for a time, the son of the house
brought up a fat Anglo - Japanese dictionary, and
seemed anxious to while away a pleasant hour or
two in getting me to decipher portions of it for
him. Apart from being over - attended, I was ex-
tremely comfortable at that place. A couple of
days later I received a telegram which necessitated
my going right into a portion of the country where
there were neither railways nor good quarters.
So, being in one of the biggest of Japanese towns,
and knowing that for the next few weeks my food,
even from a Japanese point of view, would be ex-
tremely bad, I instructed the hotel-keeper to lay
in for my journey an assortment of tinned pro-
visions and certain other European commodities.
This he did. When I applied for my bill before
leaving the hotel, I was met with an extremely
courteous but very firm refusal. “ Mr. X.,” they
told me, “ would be extremely angered if they were
to allow me to pay for what I had had.”

“ But I am not his guest on this occasion, and he
is not even here,” I explained.

31

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

“You were with him before,” they replied. “ Be-
sides, the liberal chadai which you have given more
than compensates us for such inferior food and ac-
commodation as you have had.”

“ But you must let me pay for that case of tinned
provisions,” I urged.

They regretted that it could not be done ; and as
I had to catch my train, I left, thinking that when
some day I should get back to Tokio I should be
able to put matters right with Mr. X. When, how-
ever, I did see him, months after, he would not hear
of my paying even for the necessaries I had laid in
with so lavish a hand for a journey which had noth-
ing whatever to do with him. I mention these per-
sonal incidents at this stage, as they serve to illus-
trate some of the difficulties of a delicate nature
which may beset and serve to perplex the unsophis-
ticated traveller in Japan.

On the subject of Japanese accommodation, I had
formed, previously to my arrival in the country, an
extremely inaccurate idea; and yet, in re-reading
some of the descriptions on which I had based my
anticipations, I must admit that in words they were
often correct.

Of course, I knew that the rooms were low and
framed in wood, and floored with spotless matting;
that they were fenced in with sliding panels of light
woodwork and paper ; that they were devoid of fur-
niture as we know it; and that one had to sit on
the floor, and to walk about in one’s stockinged feet.

All this was true, and it conveyed to my mind

32

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMODATION

the impression that such accommodation must be
comfortless in the extreme. Pictures which I have
shown to people of such places since my return
almost invariably call forth an expression to the
same effect.

Whether I am well advised, or am likely to be suc-
cessful in endeavoring to elucidate certain features
with regard to Japanese accommodation as I found
them, I do not know.

Anyhow, I would say that, apart from the ques-
tion of continually sitting, or rather kneeling, on the
floor, the agonies entailed by which process are
often much exaggerated, a really good Japanese
house, except during the cold weather, is far more
comfortable than the ordinary so-called “foreign”
hotel that one meets with in Japan, away from the
treaty-ports and from treaty-port influence.

The first thing one usually does on arriving at a
Japanese hotel is to take off one’s clothes and have
a bath. It is not necessary for the guest to possess
a single item of luggage ; everything, from night-
clothes and day-clothes, for the matter of that, even
down to tooth - brushes, is found for him by the
house.

The Japanese tooth-brush is merely a stick of soft
wood pointed at one end and having the fibre un-
ravelled at the other. When the visitor has made
use of this instrument of torture he breaks it in half.

The furniture is spare enough. Mats to sit upon
are brought in on one’s arrival, and removed when
one leaves or goes to bed.

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

The bed during the daytime is stowed away in a
cupboard, and is brought out only when required.
Such as it is, I found it very comfortable as a rule,
and, in nineteen cases out of twenty, clean. It con-
sists, as most people know, of a few thickly padded
oblong quilts, which are placed on the floor. The
upper clothes are of a very similar nature, and are
applied in a greater or less quantity according to
the temperature. The bedding is not washed as
often as our sheets, but more often than the blankets
in an ordinary European hotel. It is, however, sun-
bathed or aired almost daily, and from time to time
is unpicked and thoroughly cleaned.

My advice to Europeans travelling in Japan is to
take a pair of sheets and a pillow with them. The
Japanese pillow is the weakest point in the bed-
furniture according to foreign idealists’ notions of
comfort. It is hard and cylindrical, like a German
sausage, about eight inches in diameter, and twelve
or fifteen inches long. I do not know the nature of
the material used in making up the interior of an
ordinary pillow, but on one occasion, when I com-
plained to a landlady that it was rather like a brick,
she triumphantly brought me one which she seemed
very proud of, and which she told me was stuffed
with tea. When I explain that this pillow seemed
luxurious and downy in comparison with those I
had previously tried, the solid consistency of the
ordinary Japanese pillow can be imagined.

I feel that in treating this subject I should tell
once more the harrowing tale of how the Japanese

34

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

women torture themselves by sleeping with their
heads on blocks of wood, for that is the theory
which is usually accepted in Europe and America.

However, it is only true in a figurative sense. To
describe it accurately, one must say that they sleep
with their necks resting on a pillow, a portion of
which is made of wood. But the wooden portion
does not touch them, as above it is fixed a padded
roll of a softer consistency, and presumably made on
the same lines as the pillows first described ; but it
is only three inches in diameter by six or eight
inches long. Outside this roll paper is wound and
changed as often as required. In many parts of
the country these are the only pillows available for
either sex ; and I can only say that, as far as I am
concerned, I have slept more comfortably with my
neck on the bar of a chair.

My impression is that the pillow I first described
— that made on the sausage principle — is a com-
paratively modern institution, and represents the
only sign of transition from native towards Western
methods that is to be found in Japanese bedding.

No ablutions, or any other functions of the toilet
except hair-dressing, which is done by professional
hands, are carried on in one’s room. In certain
passages water-stands are placed with metal basins
for washing one’s hands and face. These are usual-
ly half in the open air and half under cover. They
do not, however, play an important part in the
ablutions of the Japanese; for the bath is the real
thing, and is indulged in so frequently — in the sum-

35

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

mer sometimes three or four times a day — that very
little supplementary washing is needed.

Now I do not disguise from myself that, owing
to the extraordinary accounts I had read as to what
constituted a Japanese bath, I was in a “blue funk”
on the subject when for the first time I left the
beaten track, with the firm conviction that I must
face the terrible alternative of going unwashed for a
month, or of losing forever my self-respect

I had been told that when a foreigner indulged in
a bath in such places it was an occasion for all the
population to come out and see him do it ; that the
Japanese regarded the spectacle as a free show, in
which the foreign victim played the dual part of a
clown and a “ freak ” from Barnum’s.

I had been told that everybody bathed together
indiscriminately, and that the only sign that the
Japanese had given of their appreciation of Western
notions of modesty had taken the form of fencing
off the gentlemen’s portion of the bath from that of
the ladies’ by the solid protection afforded by a
bamboo rod simply floating on the water.

Well, some of this is true and some is not, as is
usually the case with regard to accepted notions of
Japanese methods.

As a matter of fact, in such Japanese hotels as
are frequently visited by foreigners, there is usually
bath accommodation of a sort where the European
can disport himself in privacy. It may only be a
wooden tub, but he will be able to have it in a
room or an out-house by himself. In such hotels

36

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

as are visited by foreigners only occasionally, the
people of the house and the Japanese guests will,
as a rule, endeavor, at great inconvenience to them-
selves, to arrange matters so that while the stranger
is in the bath-room he has it to himself. It is only
in the hotels away from the ordinary tourist track
that the foreign visitor need run any risk of finding
ladies and gentlemen strolling in while he is in the
middle of his bathing operations. His companions
of the bath, however, have not come to see him, but
have entered a public room to do what he is doing ;
and unless he is eccentric in his behavior they will
not pay any attention to him, but merely take their
clothes off and commence their ablutions. If, how-
ever, the outraged foreigner should become pale
with anger, or scarlet with shame, or should exhibit
an ungentlemanly curiosity about his neighbors, his
behavior will be resented, and may cause him to be
the object of ridicule.

Let him then, if he should find himself in that
predicament, devote all his energies to smothering
his feelings, whether of indignation, shame, or curi-
osity. Let him imagine, if he can, that there are no
people within miles of him, or that he is sitting in an
ordinary smoking or reading room in a European
hotel ; and, above all, let him take everything he sees
for granted, and not appear surprised or shocked.

The Japanese bath in its ordinary form is a rec-
tangular structure made mostly of wood, and is usu-
ally let in so that its top is more or less flush with
the floor. The water is let in cold through a bam-

37

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

boo tube, and is heated in the bath by a fire under-
neath or on one side of it. In measure as it becomes
too hot, more cold water is admitted through the
supply-pipe. No doubt the Japanese habitually take
their baths very warm, but the harrowing accounts
of their entering them at a temperature which would
boil a European must be classed as figurative rather
than accurate statements. For leprosy, which the
Japanese consider to be under certain conditions a
curable disease, and for certain disorders of the skin,
naturally medicated springs are utilized for baths,
and at a very high temperature. But the ordinary
hotel bath, though possibly somewhat warmer than
our baths, is seldom too hot for a European to use
without serious discomfort. In cases where accom-
modation is poor, the bath consists merely of a
wooden tub of tolerably large dimensions, suffi-
ciently high to enable one when sitting down to
have the water up to one’s chin.

The better rectangular structures, previously de-
scribed, vary in size from about four feet long by
three feet wide, up to ten or twelve feet long by six
or eight feet wide in some of the hotels.

The water is seldom changed more than once or
twice a day, except in places where the natural hot
springs of the country are available, in which case
the water renews itself automatically and continually.
Under ordinary conditions, therefore, from a score
to a hundred people might bathe practically in the
same limited amount of water which a bath of given
dimensions will hold. Now, at first sight this would

38

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

strike the Englishman as a very dirty arrangement,
and so it would be if the Japanese treated the bath
as we do — that is to say, as a place to wash in — but
he does not. He gets into his bath for the purpose
of raising the temperature of his body after he has
been thoroughly washed all over, and on leaving it
he is immediately washed all over again, before he
puts his clothes on.

The ordinary routine is as follows, and in explain-
ing it I am assuming that the foreign bather has
adopted the Japanese costume for the time being, as
it is impossible to live comfortably in a Japanese
house in any but the native garb.

On entering the bath-room, which may have one
or more native guests of either sex in it at the time,
he divests himself of his clothes, and places them on
a tray or shelf provided for the purpose. The bath
attendant provides him with a couple of buckets of
water, one hot, one rather cold, and while sitting on
a low stool on the slightly inclined floor the patient
lathers himself all over with soap and water. The
attendant will assist him with such portions of his
body as may be difficult to get at, and if not pressed
for work with other customers will carry out the
whole process for him. The buckets of water are
constantly renewed, and after being soused with
clean water to wash the soap off, and thumped be-
tween the shoulder-blades and in the back of the
neck, he gets into the bath.

Even if the bath is unoccupied when he enters it,
he cannot expect in a busy Japanese hotel that it

39

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

will remain so ; and while, as I have above explained,
the Japanese will always do their best to avoid bath-
ing at the same time as a foreigner, it is hardly to
be expected that when they are ready to get into
the bath they will stand shivering until the foreigner
has finished. Thus the foreigner who has tempo-
rarily adopted the Japanese style of living must not
be disconcerted if, when sitting in his bath, one, or
two, or three ladies should come and sit down beside
him. If they do not know him, they will take no
notice of him ; but if one of them happens to be his
landlady, or some one who has previously conversed
with him in the hotel, she may address some com-
monplace remark to him on the heat of the water,
or any other topic; but it will all be done so much
as a matter of course that the most prurient-mind-
ed member of a modern vigilance committee would
find it a difficult matter to twist the situation into
anything suggestive of vulgarity, or of a want of
modesty. An eccentric situation, if you will, from
our point of view, but not an indecent one from
theirs. The man who wishes to keep clean in
Japan must not leave the beaten tourist track, un- '
less he is prepared to undergo over and over again
the above ordeal ; and for the European lady it
is obvious that the situation would be even more
trying.

Except in quite small villages the foreigner need
not patronize the public baths, for he will find a
bath on the lines above described in his hotel ; but
even when he does, he need not excite attention or

40

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

curiosity among the natives unless his eccentric be-
havior occasions it.

The vexed question as to how one should deal
with Japanese food is a very favorite theme with
authors, and it is treated in a very great variety of
manners. I read in a recent book how a European
married a charming Japanese lady, and soon tired
of her because she would insist on eating pork
cooked in rancid oil. Where she acquired the habit
did not transpire ; but the fact remains that the
Japanese do not eat pork as a native dish at all,
and do not use oil of any sort in their cooking.
Possibly the author was confounding Japan with
China or Spain. The best authorities agree gener-
ally that Japanese food is usually extremely clean,
and is served artistically and most delicately; that
some of it is rather eatable, but that most is ex-
tremely nasty to the taste ; and I think that, with
hardly one exception, they maintain that a Euro-
pean cannot live on it satisfactorily for any length
of time.

I quote the above opinion because I believe it
to be the right one to go upon, in spite of the fact
that it does not in the least accord with my personal
experience. There is no doubt, however, that nine-
ty-nine Englishmen out of a hundred, after reading
the above opinion and then my own, would, if they
were to go to Japan and try the experiment for
themselves, come to the conclusion that most of
what I am about to say would not coincide with
their own experiences.

41

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

It is possible that the nature of my training in
the art of relishing Japanese food has unfitted me
for looking at it from the point of view of the
foreigner; for, after a very lengthy and severe ill-
ness, I was brought back to life, or at all events to
health, upon it as my staple, and for a long time my
only solid diet.

During the long period of convalescence which
followed my illness, I acquire'd naturally and without
effort the handling of chopsticks, which I was en-
couraged to use, I am told, partly because they were
lighter than a spoon and fork, and could be manipu-
lated by one hand, and partly because the doctors
wished me to have only very little food at a time,
and to make the process of disposing of it as
lengthy as possible.

Thus it was that by the time I was well again I
had acquired a liking for Japanese food, and could
manipulate it without difficulty in the native manner.

On several occasions after this, when right away
in the interior, I had occasion to live for weeks at a
time on this diet, often of a very bad quality, and
I can only say that while I often wished I could
indulge in a beefsteak and bread, it was no sort of
an effort to me to do without these luxuries, and
I found that the diet agreed with me in every way.

I often think that the real reason why the foreigner
dislikes Japanese food is not so much on account of
its ingredients as because of the difficulty he has in
getting it comfortably. I think that the guests at
a Mansion House banquet would not do justice to

42

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

the viands, however choice they might be, if five
minutes after they had sat down they were all suffer-
ing from pins-and-needles, cramp or numbness in
their lower extremities, and if they found that three-
quarters of their food was slipping from their fork
every time they raised it to their lips. They would
get bored at their constant failures, and at their
uncomfortable position, and would leave the table
hungry. This is why we are told that it is impos-
sible for Europeans to satisfy their natural appetite
on a Japanese diet. For eating Japanese food in
the native manner, until one can use the chopsticks
easily, is something like trying to help one’s self
to soup with a fork ; and the attitude one assumes
on the floor of a Japanese house does not lend itself
to extreme comfort from our point of view for more
than a minute or two at a time.

In briefly sketching a few of the phases con-
nected with travel and accommodation in Japan at
the present day, my object has been to show that
while we hear so much of the modern progress of
the Japanese, a progress which in a book of this sort
I must necessarily emphasize, we must not run
away with the supposition that Japan proper is at
all like a Western country, or that the people in it
are at all like Western people. My personal impres-
sion is that they will not become so within measur-
able time ; for, while it may answer their purpose to
master our sciences and our methods, they will
merely apply them to their style of life, and not
necessarily adopt our style. They require modern

43

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

soldiers and sailors and business men, and ships
and railways and telegraphs and machinery, to
enable them to keep pace with their foreign com-
petitors and to keep their country for themselves.
But all these things can be adopted without radi-
cally changing the methods of conducting their
homes, that is to say, of their inner life. At all
events, we may take it that domestic Japan will be
the last feature in that country to give way to what
we are pleased to term “ civilization.”

No doubt, when the whole country has been
thrown open to the foreigner, foreign influence may
make itself felt in domestic matters to a degree
which has hitherto been impossible, owing to the
restrictions entailed by the treaty-port system, but
it is too early to indulge in conjectures on that
subject. At the present day one can travel through-
out the greater portion of Japan, that portion which
is seldom visited by the tourist, without seeing much
to indicate the great progress that has been made
at the ports and the great political, industrial, and
trading centres.

Away from these one sees occasionally a build-
ing which does not look quite Japanese in style, the
inevitable telegraph wire, the railway track, and the
policemen in European dress. In the shops we
find side by side with the simple and artistic utensils
of the Japanese household modern clocks of vulgar
design and cheap and ugly oil-lamps ; the beautiful,
though cumbersome, Japanese umbrella is being
replaced by the utilitarian European “ gamp ” in its

44

TRAVELLING AND ACCOMMODATION

most unprepossessing form ; the round felt hat is
en evidence now as a national head -gear; and one
comes across an odd-looking bicycle or two, tinned
provisions, matches, beer, and lemonade, even in the
villages.

It is true that in some of the large cities certain
wealthy men have added foreign rooms to their
houses, but this has not been for the purpose of
living in them. It merely means that they have
been built to be used on occasion, possibly for re-
ceiving foreigners, or for entertaining Japanese
friends in a European style.

There is, as previously explained, a slight tendency
on the part of the Japanese to modify and strength-
en their diet, which may be due to change in the
physical education of the Japanese of to-day, and to
the spread of the knowledgeof Western medical and
hygienic sciences ; but this feature has not yet de-
veloped to any marked degree away from the great
centres. Still, such as it is, it forms the most dis-
tinct feature of change in the domestic routine of
the country up to the present time.

45

CHAPTER III

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

We are asked to accept as a fact beyond dispute
or question that the Japanese are without gratitude
to the foreigner for the great good he has wrought
in modernizing their country. We are told that it
is the foreigner who has made the New Japan, and
it is impressed upon us that in so doing he has
conferred an inestimable blessing on the Japanese
nation.

Certain it is that modern progress in Japan could
not have arrived at its present state unless the for-
eigner’s aid had been called in on every conceivable
modern subject, and unless the foreigner had given
that aid unsparingly and with great skill. Certain
it is that without the possession of a knowledge of
Western methods the Japanese nation would be de-
clining in power, or perhaps might years ago have
been absorbed by Russia or some other State.
Therefore it may be taken that the benefits so
lavishly bestowed by the foreigner have been of a
real and tangible nature.

But in justice we must admit — firstly, that the
foreigner, in carrying out his work, has had to do
with extremely apt and eager pupils ; and, secondly,

46

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

that the Japanese have been willing to pay for any
foreign advice they have applied for.

In many countries we are obliged to force our
methods on the natives if we wish to have them
adopted, but in Japan this has never been neces-
sary, as far as education is concerned, since the
Americans obliged the Japanese Government to
open certain treaty-ports to the foreigner in 1854.

Speaking generally, and excluding Legation and
Consular officials, there are four classes of foreign-
ers in Japan, and the benefits conferred on the
Japanese by them are of a varied nature.

1st. The business foreigners. These may justly claim to have built
up the international trade of the country.

2d. The missionaries. These may justly claim to have taught Eng-
lish to many of the Japanese.

3d. The passing visitors. These may justly claim to have spent a
certain amount of money in the country.

4th. The few technical advisers and others who, for one reason or
another, live among the Japanese. These may justly claim
to have done far more than all the rest of the foreigners in
bringing about the enlightened Japan of the present day.

One of the principal grievances of the business
foreigner is that now that the Japanese are capable
of carrying on much of their international trade
without his assistance they are passing him over ;
and it is precisely the business man who is the
most bitter in his cry about the ingratitude of the
Japanese. However, he, at all events, ought to have
the consolation of knowing that in the past he has
been amply compensated in hard cash for his enter-
prise. It would be straining a point to assume that

47

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

the motives of the foreign trader in establishing
himself in Japan were purely of a philanthropic
nature : nor would it be natural or right that such
should have been the case. Therefore one cannot
see how, even if the Japanese of to-day are not such
profitable customers as in times gone by, the busi-
ness foreigners can have any very just claim against
them for want of consideration on this particular
count. They have, however, every reason to com-
plain of the lines on which many of the Japanese
conduct their foreign business.

The fact of the matter is that the various foreign
governments have not studied the interests of, or
backed up, their business compatriots in Japan; and
under these circumstances it is hardly fair for us to
lay all the blame on the Japanese if they have taken
advantage of this fact.

International gratitude of any sort is a very doubt-
ful quantity, and not to be relied upon at the best of
times ; and international business gratitude is prac-
tically non-existent, unless there is a solid business
moral at the bottom of it, and then it is no longer a
question of gratitude, but of interest.

It is hard to understand why we should claim so
much business gratitude from the Japanese, for it
would certainly never enter our heads to expect such
a quality in the French or Germans, or anybody
else with whom we deal ; and if we are to judge
by the Continental press, it will be seen that the
people of those nations do not consider that English
people are overburdened with this ideal virtue.

48

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

From the missionary point of view, the Japanese
no doubt display their ingratitude by accepting a
free education and refusing to adopt Christianity.
But unfortunately the missionaries have not yet
come to an agreement between themselves as to
the lines on which Christianity should be preached,
and consequently a Japanese, if he were to feel in-
inclined to adopt Christianity, may be excused if he
does not know which of the many conflicting sec-
tions of that faith he ought to follow.

The tourists, on their part, complain of Japanese
ingratitude when they find that after treating their
guide very liberally he has been taking a commis-
sion on everything that they have been purchasing,
and otherwise abusing their confidence. No doubt
such people fully expected to come across primitive,
unsophisticated man in the shape of a Japanese
treaty-port guide. On finding their guides to be no
more honest than is usual with the tourist guides in
highly civilized countries nearer home, the visitor
becomes unjustly indignant with Japanese methods
when he reflects that he could have arranged to
have been robbed in a similar and more extensive
manner without going half-way round the world.

With regard to the position of foreign advisers, it
is often alleged, though not as a rule by the advisers
themselves, that the Japanese treat them very un-
fairly. Unless, however, we are to assume that the
discharging of their instructors as soon as they feel
that their own knowledge is sufficient to enable
them to get along without them constitutes a sign

49

D

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

of ingratitude, we cannot call the Japanese abso-
lutely ungrateful.

The practice of discharging the foreigner as soon
as possible has been invariably adopted in Japan;
and, since the war with China, this policy has been
much more marked than was the case previously.
This is natural enough, as the Japanese no doubt
became unduly elated at their successes, and have
been wont to overrate, to some extent, their power
of getting along unaided. But undue elation and
self-confidence follow as a matter of course with any
nation which has just carried out a successful war;
and certain it is that the behavior of the Japanese,
after their marvellous achievement in this way,
would compare favorably with what might be ex-
pected in the case of any other nation in the world
under similar conditions.

After all is said and done, we cannot get away
from the fact that we, in England and elsewhere,
are in the habit of dispensing with our instructors,
native or foreign, as soon as they have finished in-
structing us. Our boys do not remain with their
army and navy crammers after they have passed
their examinations; and comparatively few of us
ever set eyes on our teachers again after we have
completed our education. Yet we should not ex-
pect to be charged with ingratitude on that account.

If we, in England, drop out of touch with our
former instructors naturally, and as a matter of
course, and when our methods of life are identical
with theirs, it is only to be expected that when

5°

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

the business contact is over between the Japanese
pupil and the foreign instructor, however kindly a
feeling may exist between them, they should gradu-
ally but surely fall apart, for their ways of living do
not run on similar lines. I am bound to say that in
conversation with many Japanese, who had passed
through the hands of various foreign instructors
during the course of their education, I have found
that they invariably spoke with respect, and some-
times with affection, of their former teachers.

That the Japanese have been well served by
their advisers and instructors in nearly every branch
of foreign learning is expressing the matter in un-
duly mild terms. To one whose business it is to
study the modern developments that have taken
place in that country, and to note the solid founda-
tion on which the modern knowledge of the Japan-
ese has taken root, the question as to which was
the greater factor in the creation of the New Japan
— the aptitude of the pupil or the conscientiously
applied skill of the instructor — must continually
occur to him. And he will find it difficult to an-
swer.

The foreigners who are still retained in this
capacity are mostly English, with a few Ameri-
cans and Germans, and a Frenchman or two.

Speaking generally, England may claim to have
taken the largest part in organizing the navy,
finance, communications, mining, and industrial
work ; Germany devoted herself mostly to the army,
medicine, and several scientific subjects. America

51

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

has had a hand in almost all departments, more par-
ticularly with regard to educational and industrial
matters; and to France belongs the chief credit of
having given the preliminary advice which led to
the formation of the existing legal code, and of or-
ganizing on modern lines the Yokosuka dock-yard,
which until now has been considered the leading
naval depot of the country. An interesting feature
about Yokosuka is that centuries ago it was the
place of residence of the first foreign adviser whom
the Japanese ever employed, one “Will” Adams,
an Englishman, who in 1600 was cast ashore in a
storm while piloting a Dutch fleet. If the affection
of the Japanese for their foreign advisers were as
strong to-day as it was then, one could not accuse
them of any want of appreciation. For their attach-
ment to Mr. Adams was so marked that they would
not let him return home to his wife and family, but
retained him in the mixed capacity of shipbuilder-in-
chief and agent for the reception of foreigners, found
him a Japanese wife, treated him with every honor,
and raised a monument to his memory over his grave,
which the guide-books tell us is “ revered to this day.”
The position of the foreign advisers who still re-
main in the service of the Japanese, though modi-
fied, is by no means less important than it was. In
times gone by, and not so very long ago, they were
the active responsible directors. They had the
organizing and practical working out of their vari-
ous subjects, and carried on the management of
their respective departments.

52

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

The Japanese, with their growing knowledge,
and their anxiety to take the reins into their own
hands, have now assumed the active direction of
their own affairs in almost every branch of their
modern organizations. Thus the foreign employe
is no longer on the executive staff, but is retained
purely as a consultant. Often, no doubt, it would
be better for the Japanese if they would allow the
foreigner more direct control than he has, for their
own knowledge on all subjects cannot yet have
developed entirely. But it was merely a question
of time as to when this change should come, and if
the Japanese have somewhat anticipated the ideal
moment, they have at all events retained a certain,
though limited, number of their foreign employes
ready to their hand as advisers in case of need.

And here again the Japanese have shown won-
derful tact in their choice of those whom they have
retained, for while, doubtless, they have allowed
many good men to leave the country, for one reason
or another, they have realized that it was necessary
to make it worth the while of equally efficient ex-
perts to remain with them.

The number has dwindled down, it is true, very
materially, but it is possible that it has just now
reached its lowest ebb for some time to come, as
there is, I believe, a slight tendency to engage a
few new men, at all events, in temporary capacities.

The relations between the Japanese and their
foreign advisers, if not of an effusive nature, are
often cordial and sympathetic, and while there must

53

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

arise, between people belonging to nations so widely
different in their traditions and methods, questions
and situations which both cannot look at from a
similar stand-point, their attitude towards each other
is, generally speaking, one of mutual respect.

The irony of the foreign advisers’ position lies
in the fact that, while many of them are men with
a world-wide reputation, whose advice in their own
or in most other countries would not only command
respect but would bear a high market value, and
while they are paid by the Japanese to advise them,
their advice is very often ignored. The fact of the
matter is that the New Japan which, when in its
infancy, left herself in the hands of the foreigner,
is anxious, now that the people of the country are
progressing in modern accomplishments, to feel that
she is acting on her own initiative, even when mis-
takes are made by so doing, and when she has to
suffer in consequence.

The state of the modern development of the
country may be said to have reached that awkward
age at which the youth is anxious to shake off
preceptorial control, and is perhaps a little ashamed
of acknowledging that, here and there, there are
a few remaining leading-strings which it will not
be politic to detach altogether just yet. Thus the'
Japanese keep their foreign advisers somewhat in
the background ; and it is perhaps for this reason
that we hear little or nothing about this small body
of highly educated and interesting men who have
done and are doing so much for that country.

54

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

The casual visitor, the casual book-writer, haunts
the treaty-ports ; and, as he finds that the treaty-
port residents do not mix in any way with the
Japanese, and never have, he is apt to draw the con-
clusion, when he goes to Tokio and sees some of
the big modern institutions there, that the Japanese
have “done it all by themselves,” and he naturally
wonders how they managed to do it. Consequently
he will very possibly draw an exaggerated estimate
of their capabilities.

Possibly such a man will hardly make the acquaint-
ance of any of the foreign employes who live there,
for the latter have neither an interest in business
matters nor any particular wish to cultivate the
society of strangers ; and, living away from the
coast, they are not so often pestered by the letter-
of-introduction fiend, as is the case with their long-
suffering compatriots within the concession limits.

The casual visitor, if he happens to come in contact
with the Japanese of a respectable class, nearly always
comes away with the idea, not only that they are
an extremely agreeable, intelligent, and enlightened
people, which is true enough, but that he has made
a favorable impression on them, which is often not
the case. This is due to two reasons — the conduct
of such Japanese will usually be courteous and very
modern, and they will nearly always be glad to
have an opportunity of conversing with a newly
arrived foreigner. The visitor in Tokio, with an
introduction or two to Japanese business people,
will have no difficulty whatever in finding plenty

55

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

of educated Japanese men ready to take him about
and to put themselves to no end of trouble for him.
But this is not necessarily due to friendship, but
rather to an intelligent curiosity.

The Japanese are often glad to meet a new-comer,
either to practise talking English with him, or to
learn his ideas, so that they can compare his views
with those of the resident foreigner. The new-
comer is apt to imagine that he has made unusual
progress, and cannot understand how it is that the
local foreigner persists in telling him that the J apanese
are difficult people to get on with, and that to obtain
an insight into their character and feelings would
mean the solving of one of the most complicated
problems in the world. He considers that he has
found it all out at the end of a week ; for he has
mistaken a passing interest, created by curiosity in
a passing man, for a frank and sudden friendship
for which there would really be no raison d'etre .
He will find that, if he remains in the country for
any length of time, unless he can manage to sustain
that feeling of curiosity about his personality in the
mind of his Japanese acquaintance, the friendship
so suddenly born will as suddenly die.

I do not mean to suggest by the above that bona
fide friendships do not exist between individual
Japanese and individual foreigners; but that the
general bearing of the Japanese is such as to im-
press the newly arrived foreigner with the fallacious
notion that he has rapidly formed a number of
friends.

56

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

The Japanese are not fond of foreigners in the
abstract, and I do not know why one should expect
them to be so. In their heart of hearts very few
people in any country are fond of foreigners as a
class. Foreigners all over the world are tolerated
with a greater or less degree of cordiality according
to the temperament of the natives of the country
of their adoption, and according to the amount of
advantage their presence may occasion to that
country. In Europe we have recognized that, in
these modern days of international intercourse, the
foreigner is a necessity, perhaps a necessary evil,
but a necessity ; and he is treated with a show of
cordiality which in many individual cases ripens
into a real friendship. Such is the case in Japan,
and we have no right to expect more.

There are many real and solid friendships exist-
ing between individual foreigners and individual
Japanese; but in the first flush of the manhood of
the New Japan, and with their successful war in
the immediate background, the general feeling of
the Japanese just now is undoubtedly that the
foreigner will soon be a useless person. Thus,
among the many things which they have borrowed
and adapted from the foreigner, and one which
has met with the greatest popularity, is the cheap
war-cry of “Japan for the Japanese.” To a nation
which is professing to run on the lines of a broad
policy, and which is endeavoring to cultivate a big
mercantile marine, and to become an international
carrying power, the fallacy of such a doctrine should

57

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

be apparent, and no doubt will become so in course
of time.

Meanwhile the position of the foreigner in Japan
is a strange one. The presence of the permanent
business resident foreigner is resented, the mission-
aries are treated with indifference, and the globe-
trotter with curiosity. Apart from the foreign
diplomatic officials, whose relations with the Japan-
ese are purely formal, the advisers and the few
business men who live away from the treaty-ports,
who mix with the Japanese, and treat them on a
basis of equality, are, as a rule, the only foreigners
who can be said to command any real respect just
now.

In justice to the Japanese we must remember
that it was only the most binding of laws, the con-
travention of which often entailed capital punish-
ment, that restrained this energetic people from
acquiring a knowledge of the outer world cen-
turies ago. When, therefore, the treaty-ports were
opened and foreigners began to pour into them, it
was in the natural order of things that the Japanese
should rush to the new-comers for instruction and
advice. It did not matter much what sort of a
foreigner the man applied to might be — a German
stoker, an English billiard marker, or an American
shoe-black — it was certain that he would be able
to tell the Japanese something that they did not
know before. Consequently in those days the
foreigner, on account of his wonderful knowledge
on a variety of subjects with which the Japanese

58

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

were unacquainted, was perhaps an unduly exalted
personage in their then uneducated eyes. Now,
however, he must suffer from the reaction due
to the exaggerated estimate which the Japanese
formed of his knowledge in those early days. The
tendency at the present day is undoubtedly to
unduly discredit his capacity because the Japanese,
now that they have acquired a certain amount of
Western knowledge themselves, are able to appre-
ciate the fact that, among the people to whom they
were wont to apply for advice, were some who were
not perhaps either very highly educated or very
competent.

Of course this present feeling is quite as unrea-
sonably pessimistic as the former was unreasonably
optimistic; for the treaty-port communities, as inter-
national trading communities go, are certainly up to
the quality that one might expect with regard to re-
respectability and business integrity; and among
the residents there are many highly educated and
honorable men who would do credit to any com-
munity in the world. Of course there are many
who do not come up to that standard, as all sorts
and conditions of men drift out to those places. A
town which has always a shifting population of the
sailors of all nations, and other people of noisy
habits and a low class, is hardly likely to offer a
good impression of the foreigner to the Japanese,
who naturally base their estimate of foreigners
rather on the noisy and aggressive than on the
quiet and respectable element.

59

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

To bring home the impression which is held by
the Japanese of the foreigner, I quote below from
the Japan Mail the translation of one of Count
Okuma’s speeches on the subject :

“Comparing Europeans and Japanese, I do not think that the
Europeans then (thirty years ago) in Japan were a particularly high
class of persons ; nor do I think that those here now are particularly
high class. . On the whole, I think they would not have been reck-
oned higher than middle -class in Europe. Among diplomatic
officials there may have been men of high standing, but the general
run of merchants were of the middle and lower classes. Middle
and lower classes though they did belong to, however, when we
compare them with the Japanese of the time, how great was the
difference in the degree of their civilization. The foreigners living
in Yokohama, Nagasaki, and so forth, seemed to know everything,
and were many degrees superior to the Japanese. Their ideas were
so large that the Japanese were quite astounded. I was a student
at the time, and I remember that on one occasion, thinking that a
certain foreigner was a wonderful scholar, I went to ask him a
question, but when I look back now I recognize that he was not
equal even to a Japanese middle-school graduate. Still I was sur-
prised at the explanations I received from him.”

Count Okuma is not a man who speaks either
lightly or uselessly, and is certainly one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, statesman in Japan.
His expressions with regard to the foreigner, above
quoted, may be taken as affording a representative
and moderate opinion as held by the better-class
Japanese of to-day, and I quote them as such.
There still remain fiery orators who advocate the
suppression of all foreigners from time to time, but
the Japanese press as a rule ridicule and condemn
the speeches of such gentlemen.

It is only when one knows a Japanese extremely
well that he will state his real opinion of the for-

60

COUNT OKUMA

Photographed by Ogawa

THE STANDING OF THE FOREIGNER

eigner, and when he does it is often both sweeping
and uncomplimentary. In conversation with a Jap-
anese gentleman who is well known both in Japan
and in Europe, on the question of the anti-foreign
feeling, he remarked that the Englishman in Eng-
land was of quite a different stamp from the Eng-
lishman in Japan; as the latter was totally unable
to distinguish the difference between a Japanese
gentleman and a coolie, with the result that “ the
local foreigners treated all Japanese like rikisha
boys.”

This may hold good with regard to certain local
foreigners and tourists, but it is not at all justified
in the case of many of the residents.

I feel that I am plagiarizing everybody who has
written on the subject of Japan when I say that the
term “ Ketojin ” or “ hairy barbarian ” is the con-
temptuous method employed by the Japanese to
designate the foreigner. The freedom, however,
with which this expression is employed by the Jap-
anese of the present day, who usually take it for
granted that no foreigner understands anything of
their language, makes it very obvious that the spirit
of contempt which centuries ago gave birth to this
opprobrious title still holds good to a great extent.

After all, the people of most nations have meth-
ods of designating the people of others by means of
epithets which are neither less forcible nor in better
taste, and, while sometimes the employment of such
terms may add to the gayety, it seldom affects detri-
mentally the relations of the nation in question.

CHAPTER IV

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

The earliest authenticated educational code in
Japan was promulgated during the first years of
the eighth century in the reign of the Emperor
Mombu.

As educational codes go, it was of course primi-
tive enough, providing as it did merely for a cer-
tain amount of instruction for Court officials. But
all things must have a beginning, and the example
afforded by this particular code, with its narrow
scope, was soon followed and improved upon. The
educational circle soon after expanded until it em-
braced the samurai , who, as a class, can perhaps
best be described as corresponding to something
between the knights and the squires who were
retained in the service of our barons in the days of
feudalism in England.

At that time the complete samurai was expected
to be proficient in etiquette, horsemanship, archery,
music, reading, writing, and arithmetic ; that is to
say, he had to attain seven accomplishments, the
last four of which were not considered at all neces-
sary to his British equivalent at the period in ques-
tion.

62

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

However, it was not until the commencement of
the Meiji era, a little over thirty years ago, when
the Shogunate came to an end, that education of a
solid description spread downward in any marked
degree below the official classes.

Kioto, the ancient capital of Japan, may be said
to have been the birthplace of the first properly or-
ganized attempt at a general system of academical
instruction, and this event took place in 1868, when
an Educational Board was started in that city.

The schools which had been authorized during
the regime of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and had
been run in an unsystematic manner, were reconsti-
tuted, and others were opened on somewhat new
lines ; and eventually the whole system was brought
under the direct control of the Government Depart-
ment of Education established in 1871.

This date may be fixed as the starting-point of
education in Japan on modern or Western lines, for
at this period commissioners were despatched by the
Government to the various civilized countries to
report as to the best means of bringing Japan into
educational line with the most advanced of foreign
nations.

The immediate result of this was the foundation
of a code which, in substance and in fact, was prac-
tically identical with that in force in the United
States at the time, and I believe I am right in stat-
ing that the first foreign adviser to the Japanese
Government on educational matters was an Ameri-
can, Mr. David Murray.

63

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

The Mikado’s edict as to the aims of the educa-
tional system, rendered freely in English, was as
follows :

“ All knowledge, from that essential for ordinary requirements,
to the higher accomplishments necessary to prepare officers, land-
owners, merchants, artists, physicians, etc., for their respective call-
ings, is acquired by learning. It is intended that henceforth edu-
cation shall be so diffused that there may not be a village with an
ignorant family, nor a family with an ignorant member.”

Such a programme was ambitious enough in all
conscience, and would seem to indicate an ideal
which has not up till now been attained in any
known country; but, ambitious as it was, the Japan-
ese have never lost sight of it, and probably never
will, until they have reached as near to its accom-
plishment as can ever be attained when one is striv-
ing after the impossible.

Education and the educational code encountered
many vicissitudes, and underwent constant revision ;
but, however chaotic its condition, its progress was
always in the right direction ; the next notable step
being the founding of the Imperial University of
Tokio in 1 877, out of a nucleus formed of various
then existing schools.

By that time many foreign professors had been
imported from England, America, Germany, and
France, and the higher branches of learning, such
as law, medicine, science, and art, were in full
swing.

Passing to more recent times, I think in 1882 or
1 883, the general system of education which prevails
to-day was inaugurated by Viscount Mori Arinori,

64

VISCOUNT YOZO YAMAO

Minister of Education during the early struggles of the
modern educational movement

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

a most energetic and enlightened diplomatist, who,
coming fresh from the go-ahead influences of Wash-
ington, where he had acted as Japanese Minister,
was appointed Minister of Education in his own
country.

He held this position until he was assassinated in
1889, and during his term of office worked wonders
in the way of forwarding the education of his fellow-
countrymen. He advocated strongly the policy of
a compulsory and free education for all, general con-
scription, and an enforced service under Govern-
ment by the graduates for a given number of years
after leaving college ; the nature of such service to
be determined by the particular branch of technical
knowledge which an individual student had attained.
In getting these strong precepts carried out he was
partially successful.

Of modern education, from its early days until
comparatively recent times, a writer in the Kokumin-
no-Tomo gives the following figures as to the total
roll-call of students and graduates in the various
educational establishments throughout the country:

1873 1,180,000

1879 2,210,000

1885 3,180,000

1891 3,630,000

Personally I think these figures are a little opti-
mistic; and in any case the accuracy of statistics in
those days was not altogether to be depended on.
Government tables, published in November, 1897,

6s

E

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

show the following results since years above re-
ferred to :

l%92 3.698,536

^93 3,897,401

^94 4,091,110

i895 4,290,487

During the same period the increase in the num-
ber of schools of all sorts was proportionate, and as
follows:

1892

1893

1894

1895

25.375

25.594

25.637

28,228

These schools were made up during 1895 the
following manner:

Elementary Schools . 26,631

Apprentices’ Schools 10

Supplementary Schools for Technical Instruction 55

Blind and Dumb Schools 4

Ordinary Normal Schools 47

Higher Normal Schools 2

Ordinary Middle Schools 96

Higher Female Schools 15

Higher Middle Schools 1

Higher Schools 6

Imperial University 1

Special Schools 47

Technical Schools 50

Miscellaneous Schools 1263

Total, 28,228

At that date 61.24 per cent, of the Japanese who
were of a school-going age were receiving, at all
events, an elementary education based on modern
principles. For the purpose of showing in a plain

66

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

manner the extent to which education has per-
meated in the various provinces I give a special
map.* But though this map is clear and explicit,
and although in drawing it up I have followed the
best authenticated records, I find it exceedingly diffi-
cult to derive a satisfactory moral from it.

I cannot say that it illustrates anything in partic-
ular, unless it be that it goes to prove that the un-
expected always happens with regard to Japanese
matters.

Before I went into the question, I was sure that
I could have painted those provinces which contain
the various treaty -ports black, and have triumph-
antly called attention to the presumptive fact that
the presence of the foreigner had brought with it
the inevitable enlightening result, and that these
places were the centres from which the educational
rays emanated. But although the modern educa-
tion of the Japanese is primarily due to the presence
of foreigners, their presence in given centres affords
no guide in localizing elementary tuition at the
present day. The figures show us that Yokohama
and Kobe are only in second - rate educational
districts, whereas Nagasaki is in one of the worst
educated provinces — a third-rate educational district
— of the island of Kyushu; and this in spite of the
fact that Nagasaki is at once the most serious and
most successful of missionary headquarters in Japan,
that of the French Jesuits.

* This map faces page 70.
67

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Giving up localities occupied by the foreigner as
a bad job from the point of view of coloring my map,

I took it for granted that Tokio, the present capital,
the seat of Japanese enlightenment, the city that
holds their splendid university, and a whole quarter
full of Protestant missionaries; Kioto, the birth-
place of modern education ; and Osaka, the great
industrial centre, would all come inside the best ed-
ucated districts in the country.

Alas, Kioto and Osaka are in only second-rate
educational districts, and Tokio is worse still —
third-rate.

Then I turned to the geographical and geological
features of the country for an explanation, but it was
not forthcoming. It is possible, I thought, that
where the country is mountainous, education will
be more difficult than elsewhere, and we shall con-
sequently find the percentages of educated popula-
tion reduced in those places — but not at all. For
there is Fuji, the highest mountain in the country,
plumped right down in the centre of a first-class
educational district ; and there is the island of Hok-
kaido, the sole remaining refuge of the “hairy Aino,”
which is given up to snow and ice for some months
in the year, is essentially the least civilized of the
big islands of Japan, and is full of mountains, but is
better educated than the neighboring province of
Rikuoku, on the main island.

Then my thoughts reverted to the province of Kii,
where it had been my lot to travel for some time, %
with a view of advising certain owners of forests as

68

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

to whether it would be possible to overcome geo-
graphical difficulties sufficiently to enable them to
get their timber to the sea; where my Japanese
friend from Nagoya had about as much difficulty in
making himself understood by the natives as I had ;
and where even the Japanese food was so bad that
he had a difficulty in eating it; and I made up my
mind that, at all events as far as education was con-
cerned, that district could be left white, or nearly so,
on the map. Again I was mistaken, for the Govern-
ment returns show most of this portion of the coun-
try to be a first-class educational centre.

In the face of all these conflicting facts, which go
to shake one’s ordinary theories — for even that pro-
verbial civilizer, the railway, seems to have had no
direct influence on the proportionate scale of Japan-
ese elementary education — it is difficult to find a
satisfactory reason for the peculiar conditions.

I can only come to the conclusion that, as far as
the masses are concerned, education makes more
effectual progress in some of the quiet and out-
lying districts which are practically undisturbed by
the foreigner, or by modern methods ; where the
old native industries flourish steadily and uninter-
ruptedly; where the Japan of to-day is still to a cer-
tain extent the Japan of the past; and where the
only modernizing influence which is now making
itself felt is occasioned by the Government regula-
tions, which insist on a good elementary education
of a nature hitherto unknown.

The problem which presents itself, if the above

69

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

assumption be correct, is an exceedingly interesting
one ; for it would seem to imply that side by side
with the progressive, ambitious Japan which we
know (a Japan which is led still by a comparatively
small body of highly educated men, who have a
thorough knowledge of the outer world), there is
another and equally useful community springing
into existence, which in ten or twenty years from
now will make itself felt in Japanese politics. I
refer to the communities shaded black and double
cross-barred on my map, which are made up as a
rule, not of men taught by the foreigner, but of
those who are being educated quietly and systemati-
cally, in the Government and other schools, by their
fellow-countrymen, who in years gone by have im-
bibed their instruction from the foreigner.

The masses who go to make up such communities
will in a few years be able, not only to look on mat-
ters from a broader point of view than can the
common people of to-day, but will understand their
political value under existing laws. They should,
in fact, eventually form that backbone to the policy
of Japan, the voting power, which will solve the
future destinies of their country in its permanent
modern policy — a power for good or evil, as the
case may be, but which is lacking to-day.

Captain Brinkley, who is perhaps our greatest
authority on Japanese modern policy, and certainly
the greatest writer on the subject, has maintained
that the politics of Japan are those of the individual
and not of the party. It is to the millions of boys

70

THE ENGINEERING COLLEGE OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO

Photographed by Professor C. D. West

THE LAW COLLEGE AND LIBRARY OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO

Photographed by Professor C. D. West

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

who to-day are partially educated that one must
look in the future, when their education has been
completed, to furnish the material following of the
various political leaders.

Of course the educational map above referred to
is only serviceable as showing the general trend of
elementary and not of the higher education, and
it would seem to show that the big towns, where
modern culture is struggling to the front and high-
class education is studied, and in the large and go-
ahead industrial centres, the masses are not as well
looked after as elsewhere.

No doubt this is very largely due to the fact that
in such places there is a very large demand for
juvenile labor, and consequently the school attend-
ance among the poorer classes is less regular.

Roughly speaking, and in very round numbers,
we may estimate that there are in Japan at the pres-
ent day 30,000 schools of all sorts, 100,000 teachers,
500,000 graduates, 5,000,000 pupils of both sexes;
and that the annual outlay, in one way and another,
to maintain them has reached about ^1,500,000
sterling.

We may also say that at least two-thirds of that
portion of the total population who are of school
age are receiving tuition of a sort which in quality
will compare favorably, as far as their requirements
are concerned, with that meted out to the people of
any country in the world.

The official description of the Japanese element-
ary tuition is as follows :

71

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

“ Elementary schools are designed to give children the rudiments
of moral education and of education specially adapted to make of
them good members of the community, together with such general
knowledge and skill as are necessary for practical life — due atten-
tion being paid to their bodily development. The elementary
schools are divided into ordinary elementary schools and higher
elementary schools. Those established and maintained at the ex-
pense of cities, towns, or villages, or of town and village school
unions, or of districts within them, are called city, town, or village
elementary schools, and those established and maintained at the
expense of one or more private individuals are called private ele-
mentary school An ordinary elementary school course and a
higher elementary school course may be established conjointly in
one and the same school. In a higher elementary school, one or
more special courses in agriculture, commerce, or industry may be
established, and a supplementary course may also be established in
ordinary or higher elementary schools. The ordinary elementary
school course extends over three or four years, and the higher ele-
mentary school course over two, three, or four years. The supple-
mentary course extends over not more than three years, while in
regard to the special course the length of study is not yet fixed*
Elementary schools are also to be established in connection with
normal schools.”

Turning to the question of the higher education,
we find that the list of schools and colleges, in 1896,
ran as follows :

University 1

Higher Schools 6

Higher Female Schools 14

Normal Schools 63

Miscellaneous Schools 1352

Since then a second university has been estab-
lished in Kioto on the lines of the Tokio University.

The above institutions, for educating professional
men and ladies of corresponding social rank, had
between them nearly 90,000 students, 4940 native
and 250. foreign professors. Since that date the

72

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

number both of schools and of students has greatly
increased.

Although the higher branches of modern technical
training had been experimented with in Japan at a
somewhat earlier period, it was not until 1873, when
Mr. Henry Dyer was engaged by the Japanese Gov-
ernment, that a solid system of technical education
was inaugurated.

Viscount Yozo Yamao was the Minister of Edu-
cation at the time, and facilitated as far as possible
Mr. Dyer’s onerous task of forming the Kobu
Daigaku , from which sprang the present Imperial
University. The work accomplished by Mr. Dyer
and his able staff of foreign professors will ever
remain less noticed by the world in general than it
ought to be, for the reason that it was all carried
out so quietly ; and, although within twenty miles
of a treaty-port, and in the capital of the country,
it was out of the regular track of the tourist and the
treaty-port resident. The professors, too, who did
the work were leading a more or less retired life,
as far as the rest of the European world in Japan
was concerned.

It is not for me to talk of the respective merits
of these men, or to endeavor to point out the
amount of influence which their individual labors
have had on the modern Japanese character.
Among those who have left the country we have
such well-known names in the professional world
as Airy, Griffis, Anderson, Aston, Dyer, and Milne ;
while those still remaining, not all now professors,

73

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

but still living in Japan, have among them Captain
Brinkley, Drs. Divers and Baelz, and Professors
West, Burton, and Conder.

Mr. Dyer was head professor of the Kobu Daigaku
until 1882, when he left Japan, and Dr. Divers took
his place until 1886, when a Japanese, Mr. Hiromoto
Watanabe, was appointed first president of the
amalgamated technical schools, which had by this
time developed into what is now known as the Im-
perial Tokio University.

The site of the University is a beautiful one,
on high ground, and in a remote part of Tokio
known as the Hongo quarter. It spreads over
many acres of ground, and its buildings are as a
rule large, practical, and in good taste.

At the present day there are about 2000 students
of all sorts, and to give an idea as to the scope of
their studies, I quote the official description issued
by the Department of Education :

“ The Imperial University has for its object the teaching of such
arts and sciences as are required for the purpose of the State, and for
the prosecution of original investigations in such arts and sciences.
It consists of. the University Hall and the Colleges of Law, Medicine,
Engineering, Literature, Science, and Agriculture. The College of
Law includes the two courses of Law and Politics. The College of
Medicine includes the two courses of Medicine and Pharmacy. In
connection with this College there is established a course of lectures
on State Medicine. The College of Engineering includes the nine
courses of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Archi-
tecture, Technology of Arms, Electrical Engineering, Architecture,
Applied Chemistry, Technology of Explosives, and Mining and Met-
allurgy. The College of Literature includes the nine courses of
Philosophy, Japanese Literature, Chinese Literature, Japanese His-
tory, History, Philology, English Literature, German Literature, and
French Literature. The College of Science includes the seven

74

THE SCIENCE COLLEGE OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO

Photographed by Professor C. D. West

IN THE QUADRANGLE OF THE ENGINEERING COLLEGE OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY

OF TOKIO

Photographed by Professor C. D. West

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

courses of Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology,
Botany, and Geology. The College of Agriculture includes the four
courses of Agriculture, Agricultural Chemistry, Forestry, and Vet-
erinary Science. For the training of farmers, junior courses of
agriculture, forestry, and veterinary science were also established in
connection with this College. For the purpose of facilitating the
practical investigations of students and pupils, there are two hos-
pitals, the first and second, established in connection with the Col-
lege of Medicine. The Tokio Astronomical Observatory, the Seis-
mological Observatory, the Marine Laboratory, and the Botanical
Gardens are connected with the College of Science, and the Experi-
mental Farms, the Veterinary Hospital, the Laboratories for Forest
Technology, and Horseshoeing, together with buildings intended
for sericulture, are provided in the College of Agriculture, also for
the same purpose. There are also several other laboratories con-
nected with the Colleges of Medicine, Engineering, Science, and
Agriculture. There is also the University Library open to the in-
structors and students in general. As regards the length of the
courses of study, it should be here mentioned that the course of
Medicine extends over four years, while in the College of Law no def-
inite term of study is fixed, but three examination periods are special-
ly prescribed for each course. But in all , other Colleges, including
the course of Pharmacy, the course of study is made to extend over
three years for each subject of study. The period for scientific in-
vestigations to be carried on by students in the University Hall is
fixed at five years, of which the first two years must be devoted to
study in the Colleges to which they respectively belong, as post-
graduates.”

The educational gulf which stretches between the
University and the Elementary Schools is bridged
by a number of educational establishments graded
downward as follows : Higher Schools and Higher
Middle Schools, which are preparatory schools for
the University; Ordinary Middle Schools; Normal
Schools, for the training of teachers ; Supplementary
Technical Schools ; Apprentices’ Schools; and Deaf
and Dumb Schools. There are also many Kinder-
gartens, and a variety of special schools.

Of female education in Japan it is not the proper

75

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

time just now to write, for we may expect very great
developments of this in the immediate future. Con-
sequently any details one might give at the present
time would be out of date very shortly.

As matters now stand lady students are not at-
tached to the University, nor do they follow a cor-
responding course of study in any other institution.
There are, however, several “ Higher and Middle Fe-
male Schools,” and one school for the daughters of
noblemen. A great agitation is on foot with a view
of extending the facilities for a higher education of
ladies ; and practical effect is being given to the
growing conviction that as long as Japan only edu-
cates her men on modern lines, her progress will
only be of a one-sided nature.

There still exists, however, a pious horror in the
blinds of a large section of the Japanese of the style
and methods of the foreign woman, who is looked
on as ungainly, unladylike, and immodest ; and whose
independent and imperious manners are as much
misconstrued by the Japanese as — well, as the ways
of the Japanese women are, as a rule, misconstrued
by us.

In the elementary school girls and boys undergo
an identical course of instruction, with the result
that among the poorer classes, girl for boy, the one
has as good an education as the other; whereas, in
the measure as one ascends the social scale, one
finds the educational disparity widening between
the sexes, an anomaly which, if I am not much mis-
taken, will soon be remedied now that the Japanese

76

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

are beginning to understand the problems of modern
life. Undoubtedly the greatest personality con-
nected with modern middle-class education in Japan
is Mr. Fukusawa Yakichi, who founded the Keio-
gijiku, the most important private college in Japan.

Of him we read in Things Japanese :

“Mr. Fukusawa is a power in the land. Writing with admirable
clearness, publishing a popular newspaper, not keeping too far
ahead of the times, in favor of Christianity yesterday, because its
adoption might gain for Japan the good will of Western nations, all
eagerness for Buddhism to-day because Buddhist doctrine can be
better reconciled with those of evolution and development, pro- and
anti -foreign by turns, inquisitive, clever, not over - ballasted with
judicial calmness, the eminent private school-master, who might be
Minister of Education, but who has consistently refused all office, is
the intellectual father of half the men who now direct the affairs of
the country.”

Upwards of forty years ago Mr. Fukusawa went
to America, and on his return set himself to train
his fellow-countrymen. This was before the aboli-
tion of feudalism, and his efforts met with but scant
appreciation in high quarters, even after the Restora-
tion, all through which troublous times he kept his
college going.

A Japanese writer throws an interesting side-light
on Mr. Fukusawa’s character and methods by point-
ing out that “ During the period when people were
discussing the opening of the country, he was al-
ready teaching Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations .
In an age when feudalism was not yet wholly abol-
ished, his students were already reading John Stuart
Mill’s Representative Government .”

And the same author points out that Mr. Fuku-

77

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

sawa and his students had the unique experience of
studying the history of the ancient civil wars and
upheavals in other countries, and of simultaneously
seeing history repeating itself before their eyes in
Japan.

For years after the Restoration the better - class
Japanese looked down on Mr. Fukusawa’s school
and on the students who went there. It was bad
enough for gentlemen, who should have been sol-
diers, to become doctors and lawyers and engineers.
However, such men, at all events, went to the Uni-
versity, and did the thing properly. But it never
entered people’s heads at that time that a Japanese
man of good family could descend to banking and
other commercial business.

However, Mr. Fukusawa, with his wonderful en-
ergy and tact, and his American notions as to what
a man should do and how he should do it, fought
all these prejudices down, until to-day he stands out
above all others as the greatest educational pioneer
that his country has ever seen.

Among the private educational institutions which
have played a formidable part in instructing the
middle-class element is the Christian College at
Kioto. This was founded by Dr. Neeshima, a Jap-
anese convert to Christianity, in connection with a
group of American missionaries.

Though a highly successful educational establish-
ment, it has deviated from its methods, in the nature
of its instruction and the primary objects of its
founders; for on the death of Dr. Neeshima, the

78

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

Japanese and Americans who jointly managed the
institution came to loggerheads ; and the former,
taking advantage of the fact that the college was
built outside treaty limits, turned their American
colleagues out of the place, and thenceforth ran the
institution on their own lines; still, however, retain-
ing a nominal Christian tendency. This has afforded
a painful example of Japanese duplicity, from which
the hostile critics of that country have very natu-
rally not failed to deduce many forcible arguments
against the methods of the people.

Having now briefly outlined the quantity and
quality of Japanese education, it is as well to deal
with the capacity of the Japanese as absorbers of
instruction.

In this matter I would say at once that I know of
no people in the world who can touch them for
powers of academic application. Whether their ap-
titude comes up to their powers of application is a
matter on which opinions differ very largely, my per-
sonal conviction being that it does.

I have often enough visited the Japanese at their
studies of all sorts; in the lecture halls of the Im-
perial University, and in the humble village class-
room ; at the rehearsals of their complicated his-
torical dramas, and at the classes for trained nurses
in the hospitals ; and if application to study may be
taken to carry with it a proportionate aptitude for
learning, then the Japanese may certainly be said to
be capable of giving many points to European and
American students.

79

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

If those people who, in an airy manner, describe
the Japanese as being a light and frivolous people,
were to devote a month, or even a week, to looking
into their methods of education, they would rapidly
change their opinion: an opinion formed on what?
Is it on the sights they have seen in a treaty-port
tea-house, or on something they have read, and
which has been written by somebody who went to
a treaty-port tea-house ? Have such visitors realized
that even in the tea-house in question those very
child-like “giggling little girls,” as they call them,
the meikos who dance, and the geishas who sing and
play the samisen, have gone through a training so
lengthy and severe as to make the ordinary course
undertaken by our embryo artistes at a musical
Conservatoire mere child’s play ?

If any single proof is required of the hunger that
possesses the Japanese for acquiring knowledge, it
is to be readily found in the fact that, even when
the law of the land prescribed that the possession of
a foreign book was punishable by death, there were
Japanese to be found not only ready to risk death
in procuring such books, but who backed up their
eagerness in a practical manner by paying enormous
sums of money for them to the philanthropic Dutch
settlers who were permitted to reside in Nagasaki
on sufferance.

A Japanese friend of mine, who is now a well-
known man in the international business world,
began his studies of the English language by writ-
ing out in its entirety Johnson’s Dictionary, a copy

80

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

of which had been lent to him by a friend. This
colossal undertaking he carried out successfully,
and when I explain that he painted it all out in
Indian ink by means of the Japanese pen, a sort of
bamboo brush, on what we should call tissue paper,
and when it is borne in mind that at the commence-
ment of his task he was merely copying the out-
lines of our lettering, the form of which conveyed no
meaning to him, the terrible nature of the difficul-
ties he had to contend with, and the tedious nature
of his work, can be appreciated.

The late Count Mutsu, who died in 1897, and
who had led a life of the strangest vicissitudes,
is stated to have started his early studies of the
English language by taking a berth as cabin-boy
on a British schooner trading between Japan and
China.

Chamberlain tells us how, among other advent-
urous youths, those two well-known statesmen, the
Marquis Ito and Count Inouye, years ago smuggled
themselves on “homeward (presumably outward from
Japan) bound ” ships, as affording the only means of
gaining a practical insight into the affairs of the
outer world, and of learning the English language.

These are only a few examples out of very many
that the student of the educational methods of the
Japanese must come across continually, and which
serve to bring home most forcibly to his mind the
fact that, whatever faults there may be in the char-
acter of the Japanese, want of application to and
enthusiasm for study, even when such study is of a

81

F

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

most tedious and heart-breaking character, are cer-
tainly not among them.

How far this power of concentration is an acquired
virtue, and how far a natural instinct, is doubtless a
matter of opinion; but I think that the training
of countless generations of Japanese to methodi-
cally and accurately base their smallest actions on
an observance of strictly prescribed etiquette has
developed in them as a race a facility for absorb-
ing study the equivalent of which has only been
attained by certain individuals among the Western
peoples.

Even among that section of the resident foreign-
ers who do not admit that there is any very great
amount of good in the Japanese character, many
will allow that they possess this great capacity for
absorbing knowledge ; but the general impression
of such people is that, when knowledge has been
absorbed satisfactorily, they have not a correspond-
ing capacity for applying it to the practical uses of
life.

In justice to the Japanese it must be admitted
that we, the Western foreigners, have not as yet
had a full opportunity of judging this question. We
notice, of course, their mistakes in modern policy
and in administration ; and it often strikes us that
such errors might have been easily avoided had a
European been at the head of affairs. If, however,
the proof of their practical capacity is to be found
in the grand results of their modern policy, we
have to admit that, whatever the sum total of their

82

Photographed by Professor C. D. West

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

blunders may amount to, they have been swamped
over and over again by the general progress which
has taken place.

Speaking personally, I have been in contact with
statesmen, politicians, diplomatists, barristers, law-
yers, doctors, journalists, engineers, and architects,
who, looked at from the Western point of view,
would be considered thoroughly competent in every
way.

Possibly and probably there are not enough of
them in all for the qualities of the best among them
to be utilized to the fullest advantage, and in judging
them we must remember that the thoroughly com-
petent lawyer has to create his modern office staff,
and educate the members of it to meet his stand-
ard ; worse still, the modern Japanese manufact-
urer, instead of being able to draw his operatives
from a large class of artisans already born and
bred in the atmosphere of their trade, must, after
buying his machinery and equipping his factory in
the most up-to-date manner, begin the terrible task
of personally educating the whole of his labor;
and, worst of all, the first-rate modern politician has
to educate the whole of his constituents in the
theories of modern politics.

With regard to this last question, we have ample
proof of the thoroughness of the Japanese character,
when we consider that that remarkable statesman,
Count Okuma, even took the trouble some years
ago to found a school — possessing, I believe, over
one thousand pupils at the present day — in which

83

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

his particular form of political views are drummed
into the heads of the boys simultaneously with the
general educational subjects.

Under such circumstances the difficulties of those
Japanese who are thoroughly educated in their vari-
ous professions, in dealing with so many who are
not, can be appreciated, for they are in reality living
ten or fifteen years before their time.

These, in fact, are the halcyon days of the young
professional man leaving college, for in nine cases
out of ten he steps straight from school into an im-
portant situation such as we should not think of in-
trusting to his British equivalent until he had had
ten or twenty years of hard grinding at his practice.

Thus it is that we find the Japanese making so
many palpable mistakes in all sorts of ways in their
conduct of modern politics, professions, and business
— mistakes which afford an easy target for the critic,
but which are due to a want of experience and not
to a lack of intelligence; mistakes which are inevi-
table under the circumstances, and the real cause for
wonder with regard to which lies in the fact that a
great many more are not made.

One cannot leave the question of education with-
out touching on that feature of it on which English-
men rightly lay so much stress — that of the body as
opposed to that of the mind. Though taken up
somewhat late in the day in Japan, modern athletics
and games are being propagated with energy and
success. The boys and girls, even the youngest of
those in the elementary schools, are carefully and

84

PRESENT DAY EDUCATION

systematically drilled, and encouraged to take part
in games. Of these the most popular is base-ball,
imported from the United States, and in playing it
the Japanese children are both keen and capable.

So thorough are the Japanese in the way they
tackle everything that, when small boys are playing,
an instructor, thoroughly versed in the intricacies of
the game, presides over it, fulfilling the functions of
captain, umpire, referee, and general factotum, issu-
ing his orders and counting the balls, and very often
employing the English language in so doing.

The University students are so strong at base-
ball that they usually beat the foreign teams in their
matches in the treaty-ports.

Lawn -tennis, bicycling, and rowing are also very
popular; and, as a sign that the official seal of im-
perial approval has been extended to the policy of
athletics, it is well to mention that in a regatta in
Tokio no less than four of the Japanese princes
coxed opposing crews in one of their important races
a year or two ago. I think that constitutes an in-
ternational record as to royal patronage, in a practi-
cal form, at a boat-race. In taking to out-door pas-
times, the youthful Japanese of to-day are, in their
keenness, style, and appreciation of them, much
nearer to English and American boys than are
French, German, or those of any other race I know.

35

CHAPTER V

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

To the student of character the theatre is per-
haps a more reliable indicator of the real aspira-
tions and methods of a people than almost any other
institution. The drama, we are told, “holds the
mirror up to nature ” ; and whether a very polished
mirror, or a somewhat tarnished and distorted one,
it nearly always offers a recognizable reflection. In
Japan, where an insight into the real character of
the people is hedged round with so many complica-
tions and difficulties, the drama is essentially useful
as offering the foreigner a means of either confirm-
ing or dissipating his impressions on a given subject.

The old Japanese classical drama is so serious a
business that one can understand that many foreign
writers maintain these plays to be slow and uninter-
esting to watch for more than a short time, though
personally I have never found them so. It is not
my wish to hark back to the classical drama, which
subject has been thoroughly well treated by a variety
of writers, beyond touching on it sufficiently for the
purpose of comparing it with the more modern
plays which are springing into popularity at the
present day.

86

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

The Japanese have from time almost immemorial
taken their theatre very seriously ; so seriously, in
fact, that any departure from the well-established
routine and etiquette was not only looked upon with
disapproval, but was considered to constitute almost
a species of sacrilege. In Japan, where the essence
of religious practice consists in the worship of one’s
ancestors, and the dramatic performances of the old
school have been confined to the representations of
episodes, real and imaginary, of mediaeval and mythi-
cal history, it is only natural that the theatre should
have retained a certain semi-official connection with
the religion of the country. Chamberlain tells us
that the theatre in Japan, as, in fact, elsewhere, owes
its origin to religion ; that “ it can be traced back to
religious dances of immemorial antiquity, accompa-
nied by rude choric songs.”

However, with regard to the classical drama of
Japan, the ordinary educated Japanese of to-day,
though conversant with the time-honored and fan-
tastic mythology on which these plays are based,
has difficulty in fathoming the stilted phraseology
of his theatre, which is quite unlike any colloquial
Japanese. Consequently, in spite of the general
veneration in which the classical theatre is still
held, the need of some more popular, if lower class,
entertainment was .felt, and this eventually intro-
duced itself in the form of plays having to do with
contemporary every-day life. Such performances
have been well attended, though professedly looked
down upon as vulgar by many of the people who

87

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

patronized them, and though the actors were spoken
of with contempt. But these social plays, though
they undoubtedly formed the first step towards the
modernizing of the Japanese drama, were essen-
tially Japanese in their theory and practice, and no
attempt was made to represent foreign life, beyond
introducing occasional scenes in China and Corea.

The great exponent of the old school of drama
is, of course, Ichikawa Danjuro, who, though very
nearly sixty years of age, is still able to go through
daily performances of eight hours’ duration without
apparent fatigue, and to impersonate indiscrimi-
nately men or women of any age and character.

To me the personality of Danjuro was intensely
interesting ; and on the many occasions on which I
had opportunities of conversing with him, in his
dressing-room, between the acts of all-day-long rep-
resentations; at his rehearsals to which he invited
me; and at his private residence in Tsukji, he was
always extremely willing to give his point of view
with regard to the old and the new Japan.

Danjuro’s manner is dignified and courteous to a
degree, which has doubtless become accentuated by
his lifelong impersonations of the Daimios and old-
time heroes. I have often thought it strange that he,
the actor, the man whose life must essentially be arti-
ficial, should have been the one Japanese, of the many
in all stations of life with whom I have come in con-
tact, who should the most emphatically impress upon
me a conviction — which I feel sure is shared by
every Japanese who breathes, although appearances

88

ICHIKAWA DANJURO
The great exponent of the Classical Drama

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

would not seem to warrant such an assumption — to
the effect that while the Westernizing of his coun-
try might be a necessary policy, it was nevertheless
a necessary evil.

Danjuro may be taken as the embodiment of the
classical drama, and very naturally he is the bitter
and very powerful opponent of innovations which
may tend to popularize any other class of entertain-
ment. But the day for up-to-date drama was bound
to come, and the modernizing of Japan eventually
brought it about.

The pioneer in this new movement was an actor
named Kawakami, and if comparisons can be made
where surroundings are so different, Danjuro may
be said to represent the Henry Irving of Japan,
while Kawakami fulfils the combined functions of
the late Augustus Harris and Charles Warner, with
a dash of Coquelin aine. Kawakami has visited
Europe, though not England, and he professes to
take as his European model rather the French school
of acting than the English. However, as he ex-
pressed it to me, all the world is his prompt-book,
and his aim is to go in for the realistic and modern.
As was to be expected, he found great difficulty in
overcoming time-honored prejudices and opposition;
but the war with China, which opened up so many
new channels in Japanese enterprise, gave him his
opportunity and he took it. He brought out a piece
entitled “The China War,” and dealt with episodes
of the field of battle, portraying the prowess of the
Japanese in a thrilling and sensational manner. In

89

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

this piece some of the most realistic stage fights that
have ever been portrayed took place, and through
the piece, in true Adelphi style, ran a tale of indi-
vidual heroism and suffering.

The thing was well done, the time well chosen,
and Kawakami played to crowded houses. But, not
content with his success, he went over to China in
his search after the realistic, and personally visited
Port Arthur and other prominent places where the
fighting had been going on. Returning to Japan
he modified his piece to suit the events, and finally
achieved a great and a lasting reputation for his par-
ticular line of performance.

Shortly after “The China War” had been with-
drawn, he brought out a far more cosmopolitan and
ambitious piece, and one which at the present time,
when Japan is opening up her intercourse with for-
eign nations, exactly suits the temper of the people.

It was described as an adaptation of Jules Verne’s
Round the World in Eighty Days , and, with a view
of exemplifying the manner in which the Japan-
ese can handle a modern European piece, I give be-
low an outline of the manner in which it is worked
out. It will be seen that Jules Verne’s story is recog-
nizable all through, though the conditions are dis-
torted to suit requirements.

Of course the hero is a Japanese, and it is over a
game at billiards in the Tokio Club that he makes
his wager that he will travel round the world in the
stated time. The gentlemen who take up the bet
are “ made up ” in a manner which makes it easy

90

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

for the audience to recognize them as well-known
contemporary Tokio celebrities.

The hero takes his departure, accompanied by a
low comedy servant (Kawakami), and closely fol-
lowed by a detective, who mistakes him for a man
who has robbed a bank and is wanted by the police.
In the hurry of the departure the detective has not
been able to secure the warrant for the arrest of the
travellers.

At San Francisco the Japanese Consul refuses to
grant a warrant, on the ground that “no Japanese
gentleman can be a robber.” (Loud applause.)

We next have a scene depicting an American
railway ‘depot, which is very like a Japanese station,
but the crowd is American, and the people are rough
and rude, and show their contempt for the Japanese
travellers. There is an election fight going on, and
the detective comes in for some rough handling
until he recognizes among the mob an old friend
of his, a Japanese soshi, or professional bully, who
has come to the United States, as the pay for this
line of business is much better there than in Japan,
and the work more plentiful. With this man the
detective comes to terms, and it is agreed that the
hero and his servant shall be hustled by the election
gang and prevented from taking the train, the object
of the detective being to delay the travellers until he
gets the warrant from Tokio to arrest them. After
a good deal of fighting, however, they all three catch
the train, and, presumably, go in it all the way to
India, as the next scene opens in that country, Eng-

91

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

land, France, and Europe generally, and sea-travel-
ling having been skipped over.

In India we are plunged at once into excitement.
The travellers, including the detective, who has by
this time made their acquaintance, are found in the
middle of a dense jungle, and are hiring an elephant
for ^iooo, which they rightly look upon as an exor-
bitant price. Then comes a funeral procession. A
prince has died, and the friendly Indian who has
made the bargain about the elephant, and who talks
excellent Japanese, tells them that the widow is to
be burned alive, in accordance with the Indian cus-
tom tolerated by British rule. It turns out that the
widow in question is a young Japanese girl, who
had been smuggled out of her native country by
Chinamen and sold to the Indian prince. This
rouses the indignation of the travellers, and they
secrete themselves and watch the procession pass-
ing. The widow, with her hair down her back,
follows the coffin, and is dragged along by a stal-
wart Indian, who is armed with a big Turkish
scimitar. The scene changes to another part of
the jungle, with the funeral pyre in the centre, the
widow on the top of it, and a ring of Indians dan-
cing round it and uttering incantations. The fire is
lighted, and it is so little a stage fire that the whole
of the scenery appears to be enveloped in flames,
and the entire theatre is actually filled with smoke,
until the audience are almost suffocated. But for a
moment, in the midst of the flames, appears a huge
monster with a hideous face, clasping the fainting

92

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

widow round the waist. The Indians are filled with
superstitious fear, and well they may be, for the fire
would have burned up any human being over and
over again, and, believing that they had seen the
devil, some die on the spot and others run away.
After all, the fearful apparition turns out to be the
low comedy servant, who has had the happy idea of
placing in his master’s luggage one of those hideous
Japanese masks with which every curio collector is
familiar.

In Hong Kong we are introduced to an opium
den, with very realistic Chinamen in various stages
of intoxication. Here the detective successfully
drugs the servant, who loses his master for the time
being. Later on we find the servant, who, in the
absence of his master, has no money, earning his
living in Shanghai as a professional juggler under a
Chinese showman. Eventually the three travellers
come together again, and they, with the rescued her-
oine, who by this time is on the best of terms with
the hero, arrive in Yokohama. But they have not
yet been round the world, as they have to get to
Tokio. However, they find that they have just
time to catch the last train which will allow them to
accomplish their object in the specified time. But
their hopes are dashed to the ground, for at this
point they are arrested through the machinations of
the detective. The despair of the hero is great, and
the indignation of the servant extremely comic, as
they are led off to prison, when within eighteen
miles of their destination, by the Japanese officials,

93

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

who are “always unbending in their duty.” (More
applause, though mixed with many tears, by the au-
dience.) Eventually, however, the error is found
out, the real robber caught, and the mistake of one
day in their calculations is established, so the hero
arrives at the gates of the Tokio Club just at the
appointed moment, to the discomfiture of the gentle-
men who are waiting for him, and who have lost
their money, and in spite of the frantic efforts of a
mob of roughs who, having also put their money on
the wrong side, do all they can by physical force to
prevent his arrival.

There is a second lady waiting for the hero in
Tokio, who appears to be very much attached to
him, but whether she is his wife or not I do not
know. At all events she and the new-comer, the
widow of the Indian prince, appear pleased to meet
each other, and so it is to be presumed that they all
live happy ever afterwards.

Of course, the piece is full of incongruities from
beginning to end; but, bearing ’in mind the con-
ditions under which it is produced, it is a wonderful
piece of work. The scenery, as is nearly always the
case in Japanese theatres, is artistic, and the effects
are good. And when it is taken into consideration
that the performance is carried on in semi-daylight,
and that lime-lights are not used, the difficulty of do-
ing justice to scenery can be appreciated. As an
instance of the enterprise of Kawakami in European-
izing his performance, I would point out that he has
trained an orchestra to accompany the various in-

94

DANJURO AS THE CHIEF OF THE FORTY-SEVEN RONINS

Photographed by Genroku-Kavan

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

cidents with European music. I cannot say that it
is a very harmonious one, but it is certainly no worse
than some circus bands in England. And, when one
bears in mind that the musicians are playing me-
chanically airs which they neither understand nor
appreciate, it will be seen that Kawakami, in setting
himself the task of modernizing the tastes of the
Japanese on theatrical matters, is not shirking any
part of his undertaking. The heroine was rescued
to the strains of what I believe to have been intended
for “ The Roast Beef of Old England,” while her
agony scene, before the fire was lighted, was ac-
companied by slow music in the shape of “ The Last
Rose of Summer ” turned out on a hand-organ. The
performance terminated with “ God Save the Queen,”
possibly because I had been down to see Kawakami
in his dressing-room between the acts.

The classical performances do not allow the
foreigner to gauge in any detailed manner the qual-
ities of the Japanese actors, though, in a general way,
their professional skill has long been admitted. Now,
however, that Kawakami is working on European
lines, foreigners have a better opportunity of forming
comparisons between the acting here and elsewhere.
The striking feature to be noted is that all the minor
parts are worked out so well, and filled concientious-
ly and naturally. There is no straining after effect,
and there is a total absence of what one may term
the “pantomime crowd” awkwardness among the
supers. The policemen, the errand-boys, and the
Indians all looked like natural policemen, errand-

95

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

boys, and Indians. Even the hard-featured and
angular American mob was a fairly good imitation
of the real thing, and as they all spoke and shouted
and swore on the stage in English and French, the
effect must have been even more realistic to the Jap-
anese audience than it was to a foreigner who knew
the languages they were trying to speak. Kawakami
has not yet succeeded in overcoming the prejudice
which exists in Japan with regard to women and men
acting together, and all his female parts are taken by
young men. He thinks, however, that this change will
come with time, and there is no doubt that it would
greatly improve the performance if such were the case.
Various writers on Japan put this practice of keeping
women and men apart at the theatre down to a ques-
tion of morality, but it is difficult to see how this could
have any effect on morals. Any one who has been
behind the scenes at a Japanese theatre must have
seen many women there. It is quite the usual thing
for wives of the actors, as also for their sisters and
their cousins and their aunts and female servants
to act as dressers and helpers, and it cannot be sup-
posed that the actual presence on the stage of ac-
tresses with the actors could make any difference
whatever to their moral relations. There are many
theatres where women act by themselves, and from
the point of view of the public they are in no way
inferior to the men as dramatic exponents, but up
to the present their pieces are confined to the clas-
sical repertoire of the country. Kawakami tells me
that none of these actresses would do for his class

96

ACTRESS IN OLD STYLE PLAY

Photographed by Genroku-Kwan

THE NEW SCHOOL OF DRAMA

of piece, and that it will take some time to educate
women specially to take his parts. Danjuro, whom
I also questioned on the subject, maintained that
there was only one actress in Japan whose render-
ing of the classical pieces was at all on a par with
that of the men who take the women’s parts in his
theatre. This lady’s name is Fukuti, and she is ad-
mittedly the best Japanese actress, even for young
parts, although she is fifty-three years of age.

The law at one time prohibited men and women
appearing together on the stage, and by the time it
was rescinded the habit of doing without each other
had become so ingrained that it was not found ad-
visable to alter the existing methods. The only
concession that Danjuro has ever made in this re-
spect is when he took part in a short play with the
French actress, Madame Theo, who was on a visit
to Japan. The piece was specially written for the
occasion, she acting in French and he in Japanese,
and the prompter being an ex-member of the Japan-
ese legation in Paris. Danjuro told me that this
was the only occasion on which acting had been an
effort to him. There is no doubt that the modern-
izing of the drama will bring about before long the
mixing of the sexes on the stage, for, with the im-
provements in stage-lighting which Kawakami will
find necessary to give effect to his modern scenery,
the men who act as women will no longer look as
natural in these parts as they do at present. That
the theatre on modern lines should have found a
footing in Japan is a cause for congratulation, and
g 97

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

affords one more sign of the rapid progress which
the country is making. That it should oust the
classical drama is out of the question, but that it
will take an increasingly prominent position may be
foretold with equal certainty.

The fact of the matter is that until recently, so
long as Japan was shut up within itself, the theatre
had to rely on essentially Japanese subjects, his-
torical and otherwise, for its plays. Now, however,
that the knowledge of the people is increasing, and
they are becoming more cosmopolitan in their views
and habits, they require a wider range in their
theatrical repertoire , which will accord to a greater
extent with their aims and ambitions of the present
day.

CHAPTER VI

THE POSITION AND PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

When writing on the subject of the progress of
civilization in a country, one cannot very well avoid
touching on the subject of Christianity. Many per-
sons hold the view that civilization is the direct out-
come of Christianity ; a still greater number consider
that the one forms an essential feature of the other ;
and, in any case, it would be a difficult matter to point
to a single country of first-class standing, a great
Power, which is not, in name at all events, Christian.

If Japan, therefore, is destined to become a great
Power, she has to make up her mind either to fall
in with the religious views of the rest of the modern
world, or to prove her capacity to run satisfactorily
on her own religious lines, as the one exception to
the rule.

The present state of Christianity in Japan is at
once a painful and an unsatisfactory subject to write
about. One of the leading J apanese journals recently
stated that “when Christianity first came to Japan it
was warmly welcomed; in after-years it was bitterly
opposed ; and, at the present day, it is treated with
indifference.” And there is no doubt that this short
sentence accurately sums up the state of affairs.

99

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

When the Dutch, centuries ago, began to preach
Christianity in Japan, the people of the country,
struck with the profound knowledge and general
superiority of their teachers, readily came to the con-
clusion that the religion of men who could do and
tell them such wonderful things must be a better one
than their own. At the time, therefore, of the early
missionaries there were undoubtedly many thousands
of real Christians among the Japanese. Then, with
the advent of the Spaniards and French, Papistry and
Protestantism were pitted against each other, in the
same manner as has for centuries been the case in
many countries nearer home, and with the same de-
plorable results.

The Protestants were able to convince the Japan-
ese that the Catholics were not Christians, and were
merely, under the guise of Christianity, plotting
against the State. Some were therefore massacred,
and the rest driven out of the country.

But the Japanese soon became aware that both
Protestants and Catholics were Christians, and they
quickly came to the conclusion that, if one branch
of that religion could hatch treasonable designs, the
other might possibly do the same. The bitter hos-
tility between the two sections of one religion shook
the faith of the Japanese in Christianity; and, in that
abrupt manner which to the present day character-
izes many of her political actions, Japan determined
to have no more Christianity, and no more foreigners.
When, after the lapse of years, the foreigner was once
more admitted to certain treaty - ports, and, under

IOO

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

stringent restrictions, to other portions of Japan, the
inevitable missionary followed in the wake of the
business man, and did much excellent work.

At first his task seemed easy. He erected schools,
which readily filled with pupils, who were eager to
learn everything that the foreigner was willing to
teach them. So it looked, on the face of it, as if
Christianity were making progress ; for this rush for
knowledge, and especially for a knowledge of the
English language, was mistaken for a rush for Chris-
tianity.

Now, the average Japanese has a highly developed
desire to avoid hurting people’s feelings; and, as an
effect of this, when he went to a mission school to
learn English without paying for it, he raised no ob-
jection to being called a Christian for the time being.
He fell in with this practice, from very much the
same motive as that which prompts even a free-
thinker to take off his hat when he enters a sacred
edifice. It was the right thing to do, and he did it.
But when the pupil left school he left his Christi-
anity, with his school-books, behind him, as a matter
of course.

Again, a Japanese is essentially a man who can
adapt himself to circumstances, as any one who has
seen him out of his country must admit. And it is
in the carrying out of this strongly developed in-
stinct that, when a young Japanese goes to Europe,
he, by a species of evolution, becomes a “ Christian ”
from the moment he leaves his country until he re-
turns home. The Japanese professor, or other ex-

IOI

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

perienced adviser, will say to the young man starting
on his travels : “You had better buy a Bible, and go
to church when you are away ; it may make things
easier for you, and cannot do any harm.”

The equivalent of the above advice would be
found in an Englishman who had travelled saying
to one who was about to do so: “When you go to
Japan you had better take out a passport. You may
or may not have occasion to use it, but it is just as
well to have one by you.”

Opinions differ widely as to how far the principle
of adapting one’s self to circumstances is a virtue,
and how far a vice ; but in England, at all events, to
be too accommodating in this way in religious mat-
ters is looked upon as being somewhat contemptible.
No doubt a Japanese, when travelling, sometimes
finds that the policy of pretending to be a Christian
may have the effect of rounding off some of the
rough corners which he is bound to come across in
his contact with some foreigners in the course of his
travels ; but it is equally certain that he would often
be regarded with greater respect by a great many
people if, when questioned, he were to admit his real
religious views.

The assumed “Christianity” of the travelling
Japanese, however, cannot be attributed altogether
to hypocrisy, for the modern Japanese man, at all
events, has not, as a rule, very strong religious ten-
dencies of any sort. Many of the educated classes
have as much knowledge of Christianity as they
have of Buddhism, the rudiments of the Christian

i

102

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

faith being of a much more simple nature than those
of the other; and the rush for modern education
having elbowed out many of the opportunities offered
in the old days for profound religious study.

Shintoism, which many foreign authorities main-
tain to be no religion at all, amply suffices for the
requirements of the ordinary Japanese of to-day.
A faith, which consists in the worshipping of one’s
ancestors mainly, it is to be presumed on account
of their having brought into the world so perfect a
specimen of humanity as one’s self, is essentially a
self-satisfying belief, and one which, if it tends to
self-assertion, essentially helps to hold families and
the nation together. But there is a want of con-
viction among the Japanese about religion in any
form.

As pointed out above, it is neither ignorance of
the subject, nor hostility to it, which has caused the
Japanese to eschew Christianity, for the younger
generation, at all events, have a more complete
knowledge of its doctrines than have many of the
half-educated missionaries who go out to teach them.
But the heads of the modern Japanese are full of
the doctrines of John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte,
and others, whose writings they have studied side
by side with the Bible, and it is easy to understand
that the materialist philosophy of such authors must
appeal strongly to the Japanese, who, in searching
after foreign knowledge, are striving to adopt our
practical or material qualities rather than our spiritual
virtues. Thus it is that the soil is an uncongenial

103

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

one for a new religion, whatever that religion may
be; and again, the Japanese, since their war with
China, are so satisfied with themselves, and are so
busy in dealing with practical matters, that the mo-
ment is not opportune for spiritual innovations.

To attempt to give an accurate notion as to the
number of bona fide Japanese Christians at the
present day would be absolutely impossible. But
one may safely say that there is not one in every
100,000 of the population. Missionary statistics,
however, do not point to this state of affairs, for
the returns still show what purport to be conversions
to Christianity. But, unless the good faith of the
missionaries is called into question, one must as-
sume that they have been misled into considering
that if a Japanese in talking to them did not combat
the principles of Christianity he must necessarily be
a Christian. Now, when a Japanese is in contact
with a foreigner whom he believes to have strong
religious feelings, the last thing he would think of
doing, as a rule, would be to offer any opposition
to such convictions, and the people of the lower
classes, until recently, at all events, had no objection
whatever to being entered in the missionary returns
as “ Christians.” To such people the form of bap-
tism, as a rule, meant nothing whatever beyond the
fact that they were going through an unnecessary
ceremony to satisfy the fad of a foreigner, who had
perhaps been kind or who might some day be of
service to them. The fact of having gone through
the form of baptism would not change in any way

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

their original faith, if they had any, in their own re-
ligion ; nor would it strike them that they were ex-
pected to exhibit such an effect.

It is to be presumed, therefore, that the returns of
“Japanese Christians,” which are sent to Europe
and America from time to time, comprise every Jap-
anese who raises no objection to being called a
Christian to please the missionaries. The number
of such “ Christians ” is no doubt very great, and
they may be divided roughly into the following
classes:

1. Professional Christians , who make their living in one way or

another by working for the missionaries.

2. Interested Christians , who derive material benefits by falling

in with missionary views.

3. Nominal Christians , who have been in contact with mis-

sionaries, and who for various reasons raise no objection
to being so styled.

4. Temporary Christians, who are the children and others pass-

ing through the missionary schools for purpose of being
educated in foreign subjects.

5. Christians from force of circumstances. The native wives

and servants of such of the Europeans as insist on their
dependants observing Christianity; and a portion of the
Eurasian population.

The extending education of the lower classes is
now, however, beginning to make it clear to them
that the form of baptism should carry with it a moral
obligation of some sort to change their religious
methods ; and no doubt it is on this account that
there is a growing distaste among even the poorer
Japanese to call themselves Christians.

Certain it is that, now that English and other
modern subjects can be taught in the Japanese

I05

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

schools, and in foreign schools where Christianity
has no place, the missionaries find it increasingly
difficult to get pupils. Consequently, in spite of the
fact that hundreds of thousands of pounds have been
spent on buildings with the idea of utilizing them
in the propagation of the Gospel, many of these in-
stitutions are now either nearly empty, or in them
Christianity has been so wrapped up in other sub-
jects as to convert them into secular schools to all
intents and purposes. So that, at the present day,
the Japanese is getting tired even of pretending to
be a Christian, which is perhaps more satisfactory
after all ; for, when all pretence has been done away
with, there will certainly remain some genuine con-
verts, and it is only then that one will be able really
to gauge to what extent Christianity has had any
effect.

But, while everything seems to point to the fact
that the present day Japanese have no liking for the
Christian religion, we cannot shut our eyes to the
fact that they have never had an opportunity of see-
ing the best side of Christianity. Enormous sums
of money, it is true, have been squandered by well-
meaning people to Christianize the country, but
unfortunately this work has been intrusted largely
to men who are utterly unqualified, either by educa-
tion, training, or mode of life, for dealing with the
subject.

This may seem a strong statement to make, but,
in doing so, I believe I am expressing the feelings
even of the accredited representatives of the Church

106

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

of England in Japan. The conviction that the
interests of Christianity are being misused by the
missionaries is so strong, that many of the leading
Protestant foreigners maintain that the Roman
Catholics are the only body of workers who are
effecting any real progress in the conversion of the
Japanese. The reason for this is very plain. All
the missionaries sent out by the Roman Church
are thoroughly educated men ; they also form a
band between whose members there is no sign of
dissension. They work in their own way, consci-
entiously, systematically, and without ostentation;
living the lives of the people, on extremely inade-
quate pay; and the example afforded by the lives
of the priests and the sisters is accomplishing
results in those parts of Japan, usually rather re-
mote ones, and always in extremely poor districts,
where they carry on their work. The bona fide
Japanese Christian of to-day is, in consequence, a
Roman Catholic rather than a Protestant.

There are many good, zealous, and educated men
representing the Protestant missions in Japan, but
the effect of their work is continually discounted by
the mass of uneducated men and women, some of
whom are more or less attached to organized mis-
sions, and some of whom are merely free lances,
but whose actions have done, and are doing, infinite
harm to the prospects of Christianity, and especially
to the Protestant section of it.

To convey a proper idea as to how this evil
exists, it is necessary to explain what mission-

107

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

work in Japan means. To the English reader
the word missionary usually implies a career con-
taining a certain amount of hardship, self - denial,
and sometimes even a risk of life. It does not
follow, however, that a man may not be a thor-
oughly good and efficient propagator of the Gospel
without enduring hardship. Now in Japan at the
present day it is extremely difficult to encounter
either serious hardship in the way of living, climate,
or extreme filth of surroundings; and risk of life
is practically absent. Therefore missionaries may
be excused for not being able to find thoroughly
disagreeable surroundings in Japan, even if they
felt inclined to do so. To use the words of a well-
known and much-respected clergyman who has lived
many years in Japan, “ The life of the ordinarily con-
scientious curate of, say, an industrial town in Eng-
land, entails vastly more privation than is the case
even with a conscientious missionary in Japan.”

One of the great faults of the Protestant mission-
aries here is that they have not mastered the funda-
mental principle of Christianity, “ Brethren, love
one another;” and the consequence is that the time
which should be devoted to Christianizing Japan is
largely taken up by degrading squabbles between
the representatives of the various shades of Protes-
tantism about their respective methods, and the
details of their faith. These petty quibbles only
tend to lower Christianity, as exemplified by its ex-
ponents, in the eyes of the Japanese. The local
foreign papers here teem with rancorous letters from

108

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

one missionary to another, often couched in doubt-
ful English, displaying an ignorance of Christian
matters, and containing unchristian sentiments. The
air is thick with childish and vituperative pamphlets,
paid for by the supporters of these missions ; and
whatever the object of such literature may be, it can
have but the one result, of lessening the chances of
Christianity in a foreign country.

It is difficult of course to determine what consti-
tutes a missionary and what does not, and often it is
urged that many of these half-educated and ag-
gressive preachers are not attached to a “recog-
nized mission.” Certain it is that almost all shades,
and sections of shades, of Protestant opinion are
nominally represented here, some by conscientious
men, and some by competent men; but in many
cases by a very low class of persons who profess to
represent some peculiar religious fad, and whose
only method in the propagating of it is to vilify their
brethren in Christianity — Protestant or Catholic.

What is the natural effect of this sort of thing on
the mind of the intelligent and partially enlightened
Japanese of to-day? He is approached by a man far
beneath him in intellect and in education, who urges
him to forsake his pagan gods and become a Chris-
tian. “ What sort of Christian ?” is the natural re-
joinder. “ One of your sort, or one of the sort
advocated by your brother in Christianity, who sent
me this pamphlet last week describing you as a
worthless charlatan ? Which of the hundred and
one sects represented out here am I to belong to?

109

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

For you are always casting mud at each other, and
I do not know which to believe.”

Some years ago, when I was in very close touch with
that astute veteran Chinese Statesman, Li Hung
Chang, his Excellency had occasion one day to in-
terview an American missionary who had been im-
portuning him on the subject of the outrages on
missionaries in China. “ Why don’t he become a
Christian right away, and set a good example?”
was the first question put by this enthusiastic divine
to Li Hung Chang through the interpreter. In-
stead of replying directly the Viceroy asked a
counter-question, as has ever been his way. This
was, “ Who was Jesus Christ?” “Why, our Saviour,
of course,” was the reply. “ Yes, yes, I know,” said
his Excellency ; “ but what I meant to ask you was,
what is the meaning of the word Christ?” The
missionary hesitated; then, turning to the inter-
preter, said, triumphantly : “ Guess it don’t mean
much. Tell him his name is Li Hung Chang,
and that don’t mean anything; and Christ was called
Christ, that’s all.” “ His Excellency says you are
wrong,” said the interpreter. “ Li Hung Chang
means ‘ever glorious plum-tree’ (I think that was
his rendering), and he was under the impression
that Christ signified ‘ Anointed.’ ” “ Well,” said the

missionary, “ some people may attach that meaning
or any other to it. But He was our Saviour.” Li
Hung Chang and his secretary exchanged a few words,
and then the latter, addressing the missionary, said,
“ His Excellency is of opinion that if, when you get

no

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

to China, you will place oil on your head, and call
yourself ‘ Christ,’ the Chinamen will not know that
you are not speaking the truth.” To my surprise,
the missionary was not at all ashamed of the part he
had taken in the above conversation, and proclaimed
it on the housetops as illustrative, not of his own
ignorance — for the humiliation of beingbeaten on his
own ground had not struck him at all — but as an
instance of the depravity of mind even of the edu-
cated Chinaman.

I have quoted this instance for the purpose of
showing the class of men to whom is sometimes in-
trusted the propagation of the Gospel from the Prot-
estant stand-point in that part of the world. Such
men may possibly do some good in dealing with
savages, for they may be genuine though ignorant
Christians. The missionary in question was des-
tined to work in China, but there are scores of them
not one whit more intelligent or better versed in
their subject than the above gentleman to be found
in Japan, doing their utmost, perhaps unwittingly,
to bring into contempt the faith which they are sup-
posed to be propagating.

I am told that there are not very far short of
2000 paid foreign missionaries, male and female, in
Japan; and, as their method of life is so different
from that with which one usually associates mission
work, it is as well to give a few data with regard to
these matters. With the exception of the Catholics,
their payment is extremely good. They form their
own colonies and their own society, they live in good

in

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

houses and on good food. Many of them, though
paid as missionaries, run a successful commerce in
connection with their religious work. In the warm
weather the Tokio missionaries migrate in a body
to the mountains for months at a time, where they
have also good houses of their own, and where they
speculate in house property to a very considerable
extent.

The American missionaries are so strong a body
in Japan that they even have a considerable voice
in matters as to who shall hold office in the United
States Legation in Tokio. The consequence of
this is that they can, and do, give their official rep-
resentatives a lot of unwarrantable trouble, and ma-
terially hamper the political machinery of their
country.

These are the sort of men who swamp any good
that the conscientious missionaries can do in Japan.
For it must be remembered that whether a man is
a “ crank,” or a fanatic, an American lodging-house
keeper, a German quack doctor, a Dutch land agent,
or an English curio dealer, if he incidentally throws
in some mission work for which he is paid, he be-
comes, in the eyes of the Japanese, an exponent of
Christianity, and his ludicrous behavior tends to
burlesque and counteract the work of the bona fide
representatives of the Christian faith.

As a matter of fact, rather than making Japanese
converts, the actions of these men tend to alienate
from Christianity the sympathies of their country-
men there, or, at any rate, to lessen the incentive to

PROSPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

religious observance on the part of the foreigners,
who do not care to be identified with men of that
stamp.

Thus Christianity, in the true sense of the word,
as far as the Japanese are concerned, is in as bad a
state as it possibly could be, without being absolutely
extinct ; and the most painful part of it all is, that
this has been mainly brought about by a large sec-
tion of the men whose care it should have been to
look after it.

And yet, and this is the irony of fate, there is a
distinct possibility that Japan may, within a few
years, suddenly become a “ Christian ” country. Such
an eventuality would not, however, be the result of
conviction, nor of sympathy with Christianity, nor
would it be due to the preachings of the present-day
missionary, but in spite of them. Should it take
place, it would mean that a law had been passed
establishing Christianity as the national religion, and
the Japanese people would accept the change with-
out troubling themselves. This would have been
enacted from a similar motive to that which has
prompted Japan to purchase ironclads, to adopt a
gold currency, and to educate her people on modern
lines. It would be merely the logical following out
of her policy of putting herself on a level footing in
all respects with the rest of the civilized world.

Business men all over the world are now leaving
no stone unturned to see that their interests are
properly served in Japan; and it is high time, if we
wish to Christianize the country, that the responsible

”3

H

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

ecclesiastical authorities in England and America
should make a strong effort to see how the interests
of Christianity are being served here.

Throughout this chapter I have taken it for granted
that it is a desirable thing to endeavor to force Chris-
tianity on the Japanese. But any one who knows
the Far East cannot gainsay the fact that in those
parts of Asia where missionaries have apparently
succeeded in making “ converts ” the practical result
has usually been that, in renouncing their own faith,
these so-called Christians have merely been reduced
to having no bona fide faith at all, and have become
debased and degraded in the process of conversion
to a “ Christianity ” which is only Christian in name.

CHAPTER VII

THE MORAL STANDARD

There is a treaty-port proverb to the effect that
Japan is a country where the flowers are without
perfume, the birds without song, the men without
honor, and the women without virtue. I do not
know who originated the saying, but of all the
sweeping and unjust statements that have been
made of Japan and the Japanese I think that this
is the worst. The unfortunate part of it all is that
the superficial visitor as a rule accepts it as being
true without question ; and he does this the more
easily as the first portion of the proverb contains a
certain amount of obvious truth. As a matter of
fact, the above saying begins with the weakest of
platitudes and ends with the lowest of libels.

The many writers who have set themselves the
task of blackening the moral character of the Japan-
ese may have been acting conscientiously; but I
have often wondered which of the ostensibly civ-
ilized and Christian nations of the world they have
had in their mind’s eye as a contrast when they were
drawing their conclusions as to the low standard of
Japanese morals.

Many of the writers in question have maintained

*15

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

that this alleged immorality is innate and vicious;
while others, who have seemed to wish to palliate or
excuse a deplorable state of affairs which, in reality,
does not exist more in Japan than elsewhere, have
urged as an extenuating circumstance that such
want of morals is merely due to that lack of the
power of discrimination between right and wrong
which those same writers have laid down as being
one of the most prominent traits in the Japanese
character.

The subject of the morality of any country is a
delicate and difficult one to handle, and it is to be
regretted that so many foreign writers have dealt
both recklessly and roughly with the question of
Japanese morals.

In endeavoring to probe most Japanese questions
the European must begin by making his mind a
blank — that is to say, he should eliminate everything
in the shape of prejudice. In studying the language,
for instance, his own classics will not help him,
either in the construction of phrases or in the mean-
ing of words. In making up his mind to live in
Japanese houses he must put away from him all
his convictions as to what constitutes comfort, and
begin afresh. Then, again, in learning to relish
Japanese food, the only thing for him to do is to
forget what he has been in the habit of eating
elsewhere. So it is with the morality of the coun-
try; for if we start from the stand-point that, be-
cause such and such a thing is not countenanced
in certain other countries it must of necessity be

116

THE MORAL STANDARD

immoral, then there is nothing more to be said, for
certainly the Japanese must be immoral through and
through.

If we are to assume that our British legal and
theoretical codes of morality are perfect, and that we
are all in the habit of acting up to the standard af-
forded by them, then we may claim a right to fall
foul of the Japanese with regard to their methods in
this respect. But the man of the world cannot for
a moment accept either of these assumptions. For
if he is capable of reading our contemporary books
and newspapers, or of walking in the streets of our
larger and, consequently, more essentially civilized
towns, he can only form the impression that, how-
ever satisfied he may be with himself and his coun-
try in most respects, there still remains sufficient
room for moral improvement at home to warrant his
treating the morality of other and less civilized na-
tions at all events with a gentle hand.

I do not propose in this chapter to compare in de-
tail Japanese morals with those of any individual
Western nation, for such a comparison would be
practically impossible, owing to the differences in
the conditions of life. If, however, one adopts the
only fair basis — viz., that of accepting, for purposes
of argument, the local laws, religion, and social sur-
roundings of the country — one can only come to the
conclusion that the Japanese are by no means less
moral than the people of many countries who are
wont to exalt their own superiority in this respect.
When, therefore, I speak of morality in this chapter,

1 17

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

I am taking it only on its broad lines. I am assum-
ing that morality means the possession of decent
instincts, coupled with a modest and respectable de-
meanor, and, in the case of married people, conjugal
fidelity. I am putting out of the question alto-
gether any suggestion that a Church of England
marriage ceremony is essential before one can con-
sider conjugal relations of any sort to be of a moral
nature. Under such conditions I maintain that
while the men of Japan are probably no more moral
than those of other countries, the women are cer-
tainly no less so, and in many respects afford an ex-
ample of fidelity and domesticity which might be
followed with advantage by their sisters in several
highly civilized countries.

And yet it is the Japanese woman who is sin-
gled out by the foreign writer as being the type
of everything which is light, frivolous, and im-
moral.

What is the reason of the repeated and cowardly
attacks on the character of the women of Japan? I
can find but one, and a lame one at that. It must
be that their vilifiers have availed themselves fully
of the opportunities afforded to any foreigner to
gloat over such immorality as goes on in that coun-
try, and that they have not troubled to push their
studies beyond this point. Such people do not bear
in mind that much of the vice that they see in the
treaty-ports owes its initiative to the foreigner, that
many of the institutions are run to suit his tastes,
and are not to be met with in Japan proper. De-

118

LADY PLAYING THE KOTO

-S

THE MORAL STANDARD

spite this, however, they are all debited to the im-
morality account of the Japanese nation.

I do not know of a foreign book where an average
Japanese lady has been portrayed with any sem-
blance of realism, unless it is Miss Bacon’s Japanese
Girls and Women. The most widely read work of
fiction purporting to throw some light on Japanese
womanhood, Pierre Loti’s Madame Chrysantheme ,
has for heroine a treaty - port unfortunate, who,
clothed in a threadbare halo of romance, is palmed
off with great skill on the unsuspecting foreigner
as a fair sample of the Japanese woman. The
heroine of the well - known American song “ O
Yuchesan ” was merely a low-down tea-house girl.

Even the man who has never been in Japan at
all does not hesitate to tell us about the Japanese
woman, and he tells us she is frivolous and bad. In
so saying he is merely plagiarizing others whose
knowledge is about on a par with his own and
who have held forth on the same subject. Yet
it is on standards such as those mentioned above
that the foreigner at home forms his estimate of the
Japanese woman — he has no other to go on.

In analyzing the morality of Japan one must ad-
mit that the laws of the country allow a man to do
tolerably well what he pleases in this respect, and
that as a rule he fully avails himself of this privilege.
Unlicensed immorality is punishable, and severely
punished, as far as the woman is concerned, but the
man escapes scot-free. But fathers are often ex-
tremely severe in the bringing up of their sons, and

n9

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

as a rule paternal authority is far stronger in Japan
than in Europe. Thus there are undoubtedly many
Japanese men of the better class who lead pure lives
in the fullest sense of the word. No doubt such in-
stances are the exception rather than the rule, as is
perhaps usually the case elsewhere.

There is a fallacious notion in Britain that the
Japanese law recognizes polygamy, or at all events
the keeping of concubines; such is not the case.
The law takes no more cognizance of the mistress
in Japan than the British law does, but Society there
accepts her, and, while her children are no less ille-
gitimate than British children would be under simi-
lar circumstances, the conditions of life in Japan are
such that her position is not a degraded one. As a
matter of fact she usually becomes one of the family;
and, owing to the peculiar system of adopting chil-
dren into families which is in vogue and is recog-
nized by the law, their illegitimacy can be, and usu-
ally is, overcome.

Family ties and family respectability are such
strong features in Japanese life that even the wife
will do all in her power to keep both the woman
and her children in the house, the former becoming
by the process a part of the household, and the ma-
ternal authority over the latter being transferred by
adoption to the wife. In these circumstances the
standing of the mekake , as she is called, is a respect-
able one, and from a Japanese point of view there
is no immorality on the part of the woman accept-
ing it.

120

AN ACTOR DRESSED AS A YOSHIWARA WOMAN

Photographed by Genroku-Kwan

THE MORAL STANDARD

With the Westernizing of the country, however,
the more advanced among the Japanese are begin-
ning to realize that the mekake is no longer a lady
to be paraded openly to the world, and there is no
doubt that in time to come the prestige of her posi-
tion will diminish. She will not disappear, but we
shall see and hear less of her, and possibly the ten-
dency to legitimize her children will decline. I sup-
pose that we Pharisaical Westerners should find a
cause of joy in this, for we shall be able to say that
the Japanese are adopting our code of morals. It is
true that the effect will be to degrade a class of
women who are neither immoral nor vicious in their
instincts, and to place their children in an equivocal
position. “ Never mind,” we shall say, “ the Japan-
ese are at last becoming civilized and moral.”

Many of the priests have mekake as well as wives,
and, though this is not considered by everybody to
be quite in good taste, the position of the woman is
considered an honorable one. Thirty years ago,
that is to say, until the abolition of the Shogunate,
priests were not allowed to marry, and any immo-
rality on their part in Tokio was punishable by ex-
posure to the insults of the mob in the streets, bound,
and in a state of nudity.

To account for the wholesale libelling of the Jap-
anese woman, no doubt the foreigner before arriving
has his head full of the immorality of the country,
and immediately on landing, for one reason or an-
other best known to himself, he sets about to verify
personally the state of affairs. He cannot speak the

I 2 I

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

language, so he takes a guide. The first question
his guide asks him is very much the same question
that a guide would ask the male tourist in any other
country. So he begins his rounds of the treaty-port
sights. He visits certain semi-foreign tea-houses,
sees a geisha performance or two, and perhaps goes
to some less reputable institutions. Then he pro-
ceeds to Tokio, and visits the celebrated Yoshi-
wara.

The Yoshiwara, of which a very great deal has
been written, is at once a great and, to the student
of character, an intensely interesting institution. It
is immoral and cruel ; and briefly may be described
as the ideal working out to their logical end, and in
a practical form, of the theories of those who advo-
cate the State regulation of vice. I have no wish
to dwell on the Yoshiwara here. The two best
descriptions of this institution are to be found in
Chamberlain’s Things Japanese and Norman’s The
Real Japan . The latter, however, is somewhat sen-
sationally written, and the author makes the mis-
take of describing it as a “ secret institution,”
whereas, in reality, there is no secrecy whatever
about it. It is glaring and obvious to the newest
comer, and any journalist who may find it advisable
to inform himself as to the inner workings of its or-
ganization will have less difficulty in doing so than
with almost any other Government institution in
Japan. It is, in fact, because the Yoshiwara and
the kindred establishments in the treaty- ports can
be easily seen that the immorality of the Japanese

122

TREATY-PORT GIRLS

THE MORAL STANDARD

as a nation is so often grossly exaggerated and
misconstrued.

Glaring and obvious, cruel and immoral as these
licensed institutions may be, they are, however, all
restricted to certain quarters in the various towns,
and there is no occasion whatever for any foreigner
to visit them or to see anything of them unless he
may wish to do so.

However, the foreigner sees them, goes out of his
way to see them, and is righteously shocked. Nor
does he trouble to ask himself if there are not in-
stitutions in his own country, legal or otherwise,
which are far more degraded and degrading than
the Tokio Yoshiwara.

He has heard over and over again that Japanese
ladies and gentlemen are in the habit of selling their
children to this and kindred institutions, and that
a girl who takes service in these places suffers no
degradation in the eyes of her compatriots by so
doing. We Europeans consider the Chinese to be
very ignorant because they believe that we are in
the habit of gouging out and eating the eyes of their
children when we get a chance, though these rumors
are merely propagated by the official classes in the
Celestial Empire in order to foster and maintain the
hatred of the masses against the “ foreign devil.”

But we are equally simple-minded in many of the
weird and fallacious beliefs we hold with regard to
Japanese customs, and especially with regard to inter-
sexual relations in Japan.

Well, after visiting the Yoshiwara the outraged

123

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

foreigner has seen enough to prove to him that Jap-
anese women are immoral, and that is all he wants.
No; not quite all. He has heard how easy it is to
contract a “ Japanese marriage,” and he has read in
certain imaginative journals some strangely romantic
rhapsodies on the Japanese lady. What has he
read ? Assuredly not that she is a good daughter,
a loving mother, a faithful and domesticated wife,
and one who within the narrow limits of Japanese
customs has been carefully educated. Nor has he
read that she is invariably dignified and lady-like,
nor that her instincts are wholesome, womanly, and
pure. That would have been a plain statement of
facts. What he has been told is that she is a species
of quaint plaything, a giggling sort of doll, with
butterfly proclivities; that she waddles when she
walks, always smokes a pipe, and plays the sami-
sen; a being without education, without intelligence,
without feelings, and, above all, without morality.

So, with the assistance of his guide, the globe-
trotter is introduced to a “ lady ” who has a “ daugh-
ter” who is ready to become his “Japanese wife.”
She is said to be “ of the samurai class,” and though
the foreigner does not know what that means, he
has a vague notion that it is in some sort a voucher
of respectability, and the “ marriage ” is effected.
The foreigner may be excused for thinking that his
companion is a lady, for her manners from begin-
ning to end will be lady-like and modest, whatever
her station in life may have been. Now the chances
are that she, poor girl, even she, loathing her posi-

124

PONTA, A TOKIO GEISHA

Photographed by Genroku-Kwan

THE MORAL STANDARD

tion as she does, will be faithful to her temporary
“ husband,” until such time as he discards her and
leaves the country. And then, no doubt, her fate
will be to be forced to repeat the process with the
next foreign applicant for bogus matrimonial experi-
ment.

It is from this class of union that the globe-trotter
draws his conclusions as to the morality of Japanese
women. And if one takes into consideration the
conditions under which such contracts are made, one
can hardly with fairness lay the accusation of im-
morality wholly on the shoulders of the unfortunate
victim of the transaction, who, perhaps, after all, was
the only party to the contract who had any just claim
to the possession of moral instincts.

Turning from the shallow burlesque of matrimonial
relationship above explained to the more serious im-
itations of the real thing, that is to say, the cases where
Europeans have for years lived with Japanese women,
infidelity on the part of the woman is admittedly
rare ; while I understand that the bona fide inter-racial
marriages offer hardly any instance of female infidel-
ity. If such is the case, what must be the result in
purely Japanese menages? In these a husband may,
and often does, divorce his wife. But divorce in
Japan is not based on infidelity, but on convenience,
and Japanese marriages — I mean real marriages —
afford an example of female virtue which is far above
the standard of that in many more civilized countries.

Conjugal infidelity, so far as the woman is con-
cerned, carries as great a stigma in Japan as it does

I2S

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

in England. In fact, if the husband is unfaithful
the blame often attaches to the wife, who has not
known how to make him happy at home. Nor is the
virtue of the married women in Japan insured by
shutting them up as in Mohammedan and various
other countries. The freedom of intercourse between
the sexes is perhaps not quite so unrestrained as in
Britain, but it is certainly more so than in countries
like Spain, Italy, or South America.

Whatever may be the real state of the morality
of the Japanese, we should bear in mind that, while
we criticise their doings in a wholesale and brutal
manner, and often without any real knowledge of the
subject, they, on their part, as a rule, adopt a mod-
erate and inoffensive tone in referring to our failings
in this way.

Japanese morality may not be based altogether on
the same principles as our own, and no doubt some
of us may claim that occasionally the methods in
vogue in that country shock our feelings. But in
justice to them, before criticising them in a hostile
manner, we ought to ask ourselves whether we are
not mistaking a frank and clearly defined policy in
dealing with what we are wont to describe as “ the
social evil” for an innate viciousness of character;
whether what we habitually lay to the account of the
immorality of the Japanese woman would not be
more accurately described as the immorality of the
foreign man ; and finally whether, in holding up the
Westerner as a model of morality for the Japanese
to copy, we are not clamoring less for an actual de-

126

THE MORAL STANDARD

crease in Japanese immorality than for an increase
in hypocrisy to cover whatever immorality there
may be.

Above all, let us leave the character of the Japanese
woman alone unless we have had a better oppor-
tunity of judging her than is afforded by a superficial
study of the tea-house girl, the third-rate geisha, and
their sister of a lower grade still.

CHAPTER VIII

THE COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY OF THE JAPANESE

It is to be presumed that, as a rule, the business
visitor to Japan has made some attempt to study his
subject more or less before he leaves his country.
He has, no doubt, read some of the import and ex-
port returns relating to Japan. He may have also
visited some of the merchants in his own country
who habitually deal with Japan. Possibly, too, he
has had a talk with business men who have been
out to that country on similar errands before him.

But the result of all these inquiries will be to leave
him in a state of mind which will be worse, as far
as complication of impressions is concerned, than
the first.

The consular reports will afford him conclusive
proof that business, a large and increasing business,
is being done with Japan. The London merchant,
while confirming that fact, will add that, while it
may be just as well for him to go out to see for him-
self how the trade is done, he would strongly advise
him to fight shy of dealing direct with the Japanese,
for their business methods are strange.

The business man who has previously visited
Japan will endorse and emphasize the opinion of

128

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

the merchant. He will say that the Japanese in
business are devoid of integrity.

The man inquiring will, no doubt, ask his inform-
ant, “ Did the Japanese ever impose upon you when
you were out there ?”

“ Oh no,” will be the reply, “ for the simple reason
that I did not give them the chance.”

“ I suppose, then, that your people do not do
much business with Japan?”

“Yes, they do; and a very large business.”

“ Then how is the trade worked ? There must
be some foreigners who deal with the Japanese
direct, and it is to be presumed that the Japanese
must pay such people occasionally, as otherwise
these transactions would soon cease ?”

“ Oh, we receive our payments from the mer-
chants in England.’'

“ Do you refer to the Japanese merchants in Lon-
don, or to English firms ?”

“ Sometimes we are paid by one, and sometimes
by the other.”

“And do you have much trouble with the Japan-
ese merchants ?”

“ Occasionally they are rather fidgety about the
wording of contracts and about inspection ; but
they pay promptly. In fact, as far as carrying on
a business transaction is concerned, they certainly
give us no more real trouble than do the English
merchants, and our monetary transactions with them
are quite as safe.”

“Then your verdict is that the Japanese traders

129

1

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

in England are honest, and those out there are dis-
honest ?”

“ My dear fellow, go and see for yourself. Talk
to the Yokohama and Kobe people who deal with
them. They will tell you all about the matter.”

The somewhat puzzled business man goes to
Japan and talks to the treaty-port people. He is
told that the Japanese are all dishonest; that they
repudiate their contracts ; that they will put him to
no end of trouble in getting him to give them
estimates and particulars ; that they will, generally
speaking, suck his brains ; and that, if he is unfort-
unate enough to receive an order from them, they
will certainly have no intention of paying for the
goods when they have been delivered. That, in a
few words, is the gist of the treaty-port opinion of
Japanese business morality.

If the new-comer should require further confirma-
tion on the subject, he has only to open one or other
of the treaty-port papers, and he can in almost any
of them read the same line of argument propounded
day by day throughout the year. Almost alone
among these newspapers to take a different stand-
point is the Japan Mail \ which, though it some-
times criticises Japanese methods, does not adopt
the same generally condemnatory tone.

It is necessary to emphasize the treaty-port opin-
ion of Japanese business methods here because it
was the treaty -port foreigner, in times gone by at
all events, who bore the brunt of direct business
contact with the Japanese. If our manufacturers

130

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

at home have, during all these years, carried on a
satisfactory business with the Japanese through his
intermediation, then every credit is due to him for
sticking to his post under such unsatisfactory cir-
cumstances. In fact, it would seem that, by taking
the risk of such transactions off the shoulders of
our manufacturers, he has been almost heroic in
organizing and maintaining the trade between Japan
and the outer world.

Every credit, therefore, is due to him for having
done this, and his opinions on the subject of Jap-
anese business methods demand a great deal of re-
spect and consideration.

There is no doubt, however, that the treaty-port
people in Japan have rather got into a habit of un-
duly bewailing their lot, partially, no doubt, because
they are unaware of, or have forgotten, the fact that
in most other countries our traders have, as a rule,
to face quite as many and as serious business diffi-
culties, although the nature of such difficulties varies
with varying circumstances.

The foreign trader in Japan is often wont to re-
gret the fact that he is not in China, for he main-
tains that the Chinese are conscientious and ideal
traders. It has become proverbial that, as traders,
the Chinese are honest, and that the Japanese are not ;
and no doubt on the face of things it would appear
that such was the case. But we must not lose sight
of the fact that the conditions of trade between the
foreigner and the Japanese are not in the least sim-
ilar to those in vogue between the foreigner and the

131

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Chinese. It is urged, on the one hand, that a China-
man’s business word is as good as his bond, and that
both are good ; whereas it is said,' on the other, that
the bond of a Japanese trader is as worthless as his
word in his dealings with a foreigner; for it is al-
leged that, while he does not hesitate to break a ver-
bal contract, he looks upon any written document
as a mere empty formality. Certain it is that such
document will be practically worthless in assisting
the foreigner to recoup himself legally.

The intricacies of the Chinese character have been
very ably dealt with in Colquhoun’s recent work,
China in Transformation ; and to those who wish
to study that subject I would recommend a perusal
of that work.

Suffice it for me to say that, if the Chinese are
honest in business, it is the only sphere of honesty
in which they excel. It is generally admitted that
official and high-class Chinamen are dishonest in
their politics and their administration. With them
bribery, corruption, extortion, and every other com-
mercial vice are accentuated to an extreme degree,
and it is certain that there is a no more accom-
plished and persistent thief in the world than the
lower-class Chinaman.

Then how is it that the Chinese trader who deals
with the treaty-port foreigner turns out to be an
ideal of all that is honorable in business matters,
as we are so often told ? The simple answer to this
question is, that until now the Chinaman has been
absolutely in the foreigner’s hands.

132

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

The Chinaman who makes his money in a treaty-
port has no greater fear than that of having to take
his capital and his business into China proper. He
knows perfectly well that, if he makes money and
establishes himself outside concession limits, he will
promptly be robbed of his wealth by the mandarin
and other local officials. Consequently he starts his
shop or his factory and invests his capital in the
treaty -port, where he will be free to make as much
money as he likes without molestation as long as
he conforms to the ordinary business routine. His
honesty may therefore be said to be an honesty
which is bred from force of circumstances ; for, if
he were to make the treaty-port too hot to hold him,
the chances are he would be a ruined man.

Such a state of things does not, however, hold
good in Japan, for the Japanese establishes his busi-
ness in the interior in most cases, and only carries
it on in a treaty-port when he finds it handy for his
trade to do so. The Japanese trader has no fear of
being robbed either by his Government or by the
servants of the Government. And the dishonest
trader is perfectly aware that he is practically be-
yond the reach of the foreign creditor when he is
outside treaty-port limits. Consequently an unscru-
pulous Japanese in the interior has great scope for
imposing on the foreigner, if he wishes to do so,
provided he can persuade such a man to deliver the
goods beyond treaty limits on credit ; for, whatever
the law may be, in practice it turns out that, by
the very fact of the goods in question leaving the

i33

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

treaty- port, the foreigner loses all legal hold on
them.

It is true that if a foreigner who has been imposed
upon by a Japanese in this manner can get hold of
him, he has a right to sue him before a Japanese
tribunal, and when this is done he often wins his
case. But a dishonest defendant under such cir-
cumstances merely has to keep out of the way for
a time.

Until recently, too, the Japanese law was of a
nature to give the dishonest native dealer who had
been sued and had lost his case a further very easy
loophole of escape ; as, by a simple process, he could
transfer in a nominal manner all his property to a
friend at short notice. Such a friend had merely
to hold the property in question until the foreign
claimant had grown tired of claiming in vain, and
so the affair would blow over in course of time.

This law has, however, been materially modified
and improved lately; and, consequently, if the Jap-
anese tribunal before which the case comes is a com-
petent and just one, the chances of the foreigner in
dealing with a doubtful Japanese customer can be
said to be materially better than was the case a few
years ago.

With regard to the justice to be expected from a
Japanese court, I quote below from the Japan Mail
the results of the law-suits in Yokohama which oc-
curred during the six years ending in 1896, in which
foreign plaintiffs sued Japanese defendants before
a purely Japanese tribunal. In all there were

*34

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

106 law-suits, and they resulted in the following
manner:

Given in favor of the foreign plaintiff 36

Given in favor of the Japanese defendant . ... 20

Given partly in favor of plaintiff and partly in

favor of defendant 8

Compromised 2

Nonsuited 1

Withdrawn (presumably settled out of Court) . . 34

Not yet settled 5

Total 106

Out of the twenty cases in which the Japanese
defendants won the day, five of the actions were
brought by Chinese subjects and two of the cases
were practically identical, so that, as far as white, or
civilized, plaintiffs are concerned, out of fifty cases
in which a definite verdict was given for one side
or the other, the foreign plaintiff gained thirty-six
and the Japanese defendant fourteen. From this it
would not seem that the foreigners have a great
deal to fear from Japanese law, and, at all events,
they will be better off under it than they are in
many other countries where extra-territorial rights
have never existed.

But there is a circumstance which must be taken
to materially detract from the somewhat rosy picture
drawn by this schedule; and that is that, owing to
the above-referred-to difficulty of putting one’s hand
on a defendant after a verdict had gone against him,
many foreigners who would otherwise have sued did
not bring actions at all, feeling that by so doing
they would be merely throwing good money after

I35

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

bad, even if they were to gain their case. Matters,
however, are better than this to-day, as Japan already
possesses a legal code which in most respects com-
pares favorably for equity with that of almost any
other country, and year by year the Government are
improving their methods of enforcing their laws
effectively.

Political and administrative integrity in Japan is
undoubtedly high. It is not, of course, ideal, but,
comparing Japan with many countries whose civili-
zation has been brought about by the slow growth
of ages, the methods of her politicians and statesmen
are less open to reproach than those of half the
countries in Europe, to say nothing of those of the
Western hemisphere. Again, the lower classes, the
smaller tradesmen, servants, and so on, with the ex-
ception, perhaps, of those in and near treaty-ports,
are, as such people go in other countries, distinctly
honest. To account for the alleged dishonesty of
the Japanese in their dealings with the local foreigner,
we must remember that as a nation they have until
quite recently been a fighting, an artistic, and an
agricultural rather than a trading people, as we under-
stand the word. In Japan, not so long ago, a trader
was a person to be treated with contempt; and,
when a certain class is habitually looked down upon
in any .country, that fact is not at all conducive to a
high code of morals in the methods of the men of
that particular class.

Again, recognized authorities on Japanese char-
acter maintain that one of its strongest traits is an

136

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

instinct and capacity for intrigue. Such being the
case, it may be presumed that, now that modern
business is conducted by educated Japanese, this
spirit of intrigue has been brought to bear, often
quite unnecessarily, in their business methods. This
may account for some of the alleged want of busi-
ness integrity in the nation.

Another undoubted reason may be found in the
fact that, rightly or wrongly, many of the Japanese
in their rapidly acquired Western knowledge have
jumped to the conclusion that modern business is
based on sharp practice ; and it must be admitted
that they have every excuse for having fallen into
such an error. The Japanese of the present day
follow the current literature of Europe and America
very closely, and they can see enough in the journals
of many civilized countries to convince them that
colossal financial and commercial swindles are in
many well-known centres quite the order of the day.
Then, again, in their dealings with the foreigner it
has not always been the latter who has been the
honest man in the transaction; and while, as a rule,
the Japanese have been as well served as one could
expect, they have undoubtedly from time to time in-
dividually and collectively been robbed by some of
the people from whom they have acquired their im-
pressions of Western business methods.

Of Japanese intrigue in business many forcible
instances came within my personal knowledge while
I was studying industrial matters out there. One
of these, which gives a very good idea of the com-

I37

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

plicated methods sometimes adopted by them to
secure unexpected ends, I give as a representative
case. It was part of my duty, when writing on en-
gineering subjects, to inquire into the reason why
certain large Government contracts of a kind which
had hitherto been habitually placed in England had
suddenly been given to another country, which coun-
try we will call “ X.” It is true that time of delivery
was in favor of the country X, as the big engineers’
strike of 1897 was going on in England at the time;
but this consideration, though weighty, was not quite
sufficient in itself to account for the sudden and com-
plete change of market. The English firm was rep-
resented by a powerful Japanese merchant who could
usually get these contracts when he wanted them,
and the competing maker in X had a peculiarly
sharp representative specially living in Japan for the
time being. His firm had given him instructions to
do absolutely everything that was necessary to ob-
tain orders, even to underquote when advisable.
The great difficulty was to find out what other peo-
ple were quoting, as the tenders were dealt with in
the usual formal manner. By judicious bribery and
corruption, however, the smart agent suborned an
employe of the Japanese merchant firm to give him
the above information, and consequently he was al-
ways able to place his quotation slightly below theirs,
which resulted in his getting all the orders. But
the interesting part of it all was that the Japanese
merchants, knowing that they could not get a reason-
able quotation, for delivery from England just then,

138

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

did not wish to receive these orders. But not wish-
ing to offend the Government by refusing to quote,
and not wanting a competitor to make money on the
transaction, they had instructed their employe to be
suborned, and to mention to the enterprising agent
a price very far below that which they would have
quoted, if they had not known that he would go a
little lower than the figure they named. So the
trade of the country X was extended, and this was
duly notified with becoming gravity in the consular
reports. British trade had suffered, and the manu-
facturer of X lost heavily on all these contracts. But
the enterprising agent presumably received his com-
mission from the firm in X, and the money he paid
with the notion that he was bribing a Japanese em-
ploye presumably found its way into the pockets of
the competing Japanese merchant firm.

It is difficult to point a moral from the above his-
tory. Who was the honest man, and who was the
villain of the piece, in this transaction ? Did virtue
triumph in the last Act or not ? If there was any
virtue about it, I am inclined to think it did. For
the English firm could not have completed the con-
tracts if they had got them at that time ; the Japanese
merchant and the foreign agent both exercised much
ingenuity, and were both rewarded pecuniarily; while
the firm in X lost no end of money over these con-
tracts for the sake of the honor and glory of ousting
the British from a regular market. Perhaps they
too, in the long-run, will get their reward.

Whatever the experience of the local business

139

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

foreigner may be, there can be no doubt that the
Japanese have, as a nation, a stringent and binding,
though possibly from our point of view an inexpli-
cable, code of honor. Our ablest authorities on mat-
ters Japanese are agreed upon that fact. The elab-
orate system of formal suicide (now abolished) in
cases where men had violated that code — though
looked at from a European point of view as a very
barbarous proceeding — is in itself enough to make
clear the existence of a strong sense of honor. There
is no occasion for me to endeavor to elaborate the de-
tails of that code in these pages, as Mitford, Hearne,
Chamberlain, and others have made this matter
abundantly clear.

Honor, however, is not at the present day ab-
solutely synonymous with business honesty, and in
judging how far it may be considered to be so, even
in the countries which are accredited with the great-
est share of enlightenment, we should not lose sight
of the fact that there are many highly “ respectable”
and nominally virtuous men, who would be extremely
disconcerted if they were told that they were dis-
honorable because, in carrying on their successful
business, they considered themselves honest merely
on the strength of their having habitually kept just
inside the bare letter of the law.

The go-as-you-please arrangements which in the
old days existed between the purchaser and the
seller in Japan — that is to say, the absence in their
negotiations of what we should describe as a hard
and fast bargain — do not at all lend themselves to

140

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

modem business. This was all very well in trans-
actions relating to local produce, and where both
parties to the contract were Japanese, and each
understood the standing and methods of the other;
but it is quite another matter in international com-
merce.

A Japanese, it is maintained, and sometimes per-
fectly justly, does not understand the binding nature
of a modern business contract, nor has he grasped
the fact that there is, or at all events should be, a
certain standard of honor in international commer-
cial life, even if such a virtue be prompted by a
no higher motive than that which gave birth to
our well - worn proverb, “ Honesty is the best pol-
icy.”

I am bound to say that I do not think that the
Japanese, in their transactions between each other,
are more dishonest than the people of other nations,
nor do I think that the shop-keeping class, even in
dealing with the foreigner, are nearly as unscrupu-
lous as is usually the case elsewhere. It is, however,
the man who carries on the larger negotiations, more
particularly with regard to ordering goods from
abroad, of whom the greatest complaints are made.
And even here I believe that most of the unsatis-
factory transactions have been due to a misunder-
standing on both sides, rather than to a want of
honesty on either side.

We must bear in mind, on the one hand, that the
foreign treaty-port trader neither reads nor writes
Japanese, and that, with rare exceptions, he does

14

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

not even speak the language sufficiently well to
carry on an intricate negotiation satisfactorily ; and,
on the other, that the Japanese purchaser has not
always been able to know whether he was applying
to a specialist in a particular line or not, and that he
often did not know what he was purchasing. The
result is that both parties have been in the hands
of a Japanese business tout, who might or might
not be an honest man, and who might or might
not be a capable man, if he happened to be honest.
These facts, more than any other, have been re-
sponsible for the wide-spread impression as to the
general want of integrity among Japanese business
men. But while such drawbacks to trading on an
intelligent basis exist, one cannot be in the least
surprised that international business is muddled,
and that the local foreign trader, who brought out
expensive shipments of goods on what he believed
to be a definite order, has sometimes been dis-
heartened.

Nor is it the least surprising, under the circum-
stances, that, apart from the question of the ardent
nationalist instinct, which is so prominent a trait
in the Japanese character, the native firms, whose
members have during recent years been thoroughly
educated abroad in Western languages and business
methods, should do all they can to oust the local
foreigner, and to conduct the international trade
of their own country themselves, even when they
cannot always do it satisfactorily. Such firms have
not yet reached by any means perfection in such

142

COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY

dealings, but no one will accuse the better ones
among them of repudiating their contracts with the
foreigner or of not meeting their pecuniary liabili-
ties. In fact, it is safe to say that at the present
day European manufacturers are just as willing to
receive their orders for Japan through one or other
of the recognized Japanese merchant firms as they
are through firms in the hands of their own com-
patriots. Whether the Japanese user will be as
well served under such circumstances as in the past
is a different matter, and one on which opinions
naturally differ.

The local business foreigner has undoubtedly a
very great deal to complain of, and will be increas-
ingly hampered as time goes on in conducting his
business in Japan, for he is unfairly handicapped in
many ways, as I have endeavored to point out in
another chapter.

But his difficulties are not so much due to the
business dishonesty of the Japanese traders of the
present day, as to the unfair conditions surrounding
foreign trade in that country.

To sum matters up: The Japanese code of busi-
ness morality differs in many respects essentially
from our own, and, in default of understanding each
other’s methods, each party has considered that he
has been imposed upon by the other. The new
generation of Japanese business men, however, are
beginning to grasp the general lines of modern busi-
ness, and are acting on them with great ability. It
is to be feared, however, that sometimes this ability

143

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

is directed in the wrong channels, and that some of
them have taken as their model the methods of the
sharp-practicing rather than of the scrupulously hon-
orable trader ; but this is not always the case.

CHAPTER IX

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

People who wish to make a mathematical study
of the figures relating to Japanese imports and ex-
ports can obtain them without difficulty from the
periodical consular reports on the subject. Such
statistics have of late years been very comprehen-
sive and complete, as far as Japan is concerned ; and
more particularly those issued by the representatives
of England, the United States, and Germany.

In this chapter, therefore, I have avoided statistics
as far as possible, especially in their tabulated form ;
for my purpose here is to endeavor to make clear a
few of the extremely complicated features in Japan-
ese trading, as carried on with the outside world.

As far as exports are concerned, very little need
be said, as there is nothing particularly new, un-
usual, or complicated in the relations which obtain
between the Japanese seller and the foreign pur-
chaser. Japanese rice, silk, matting, tea, curios,
bamboo work, and paper, and the hundred and one
other products which are familiar all the world over,
undergo the same routine as was the case twenty
and even thirty years ago. Such trade is to a great
extent retained by the local foreigner, who has had,

*45

K

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

and still has, greater facilities for disposing of the
goods in question than have the natives ; and at the
present day it is as an exporter from Japan rather
than as an importer that the local foreign merchant
makes his money. Whether such a state of things
will continue one cannot say. Personally I antici-
pate that the rapid growth of the Japanese mercan-
tile marine, and the wonderful extension of the ram-
ifications of the big Japanese merchant firms in all the
corners of the earth, will, in the course of time, have
the effect of ousting the foreigner to a very marked
degree ; for there are few foreign firms that have
the wealth necessary to compete against the Japan-
ese merchants successfully in the long-run. Or, to
put it in other words, those who possess such wealth
will find it far easier to get a more profitable em-
ployment for their capital in other countries.

It is, however, the import trade of Japan which
interests the foreigner out of Japan — that is to say,
the home manufacturer, and especially the English-
man ; for, while we find it an easy matter to pur-
chase any Japanese goods we may require, the prob-
lem which puzzles us is that which concerns the best
methods of maintaining and increasing our sales in
Japan.

Before dealing with these methods, however, it is
as well to try and explain some of the conditions
surrounding international commerce.

Speaking generally, during the last twelve years
the exports from Japan of manufactured articles
have increased tenfold, while the imports, which are

146

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

practically all manufactured goods, have about quad-
rupled themselves during the same period.

Now, the bulk of these manufactured exports
have been made by machinery imported ; and conse-
quently the large increase of manufactured imports,
which, except for war material, are composed mainly
of machinery, railway materials, and other produc-
tive plant, points to the fact that the capacity for in-
creasing the exports of manufactured goods will be
maintained proportionately for some time to come.
This may, no doubt, seem alarming to people who
deal in articles which compete with those now
turned out by the Japanese; but, whether it is satis-
factory or not, such a state of affairs forms a com-
plete answer to those who maintain that there is no
raison d'etre for that powerful mercantile marine
service which Japan has been organizing so steadily
of late years.

In dealing with the methods of importing, I pro-
pose to lay stress on one section of it, as by so
doing the question is somewhat simplified for both
reader and writer. For this purpose I have chosen
the engineering trade, which is at once the most
important and most difficult. It has, however, the
advantage of possessing features covering all the
difficulties which beset the commerce in other in-
dustries.

From the point of view of the European manu-
facturing engineer, the most valuable work to be
had from Japan is the Government work. For not
only is there more of it than all the private con-

T47

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

tracts put together, but if a certain manufacturer is
favored with Government contracts he will, as a
matter of course, receive a great many others ; for
the Government as a purchaser is generally the
model on which the private purchaser in Japan
bases his policy.

On general lines the private purchasers are logi-
cal in so doing, for undoubtedly the Government,
with their many engineers and other employes who
have been sent to complete their technical educa-
tion abroad, understand a great deal more about
purchasing than does the private individual with
his more limited experience.

A few years ago the Japanese Government found
it advisable to order most of their material through
foreign firms in the treaty-ports, and, as a rule, they
were well enough served. But, as time went on,
the big Japanese merchant firms and banks not
only grew bigger, but began to educate their own
people in foreign business much as the Government
had been educating their technical staff. Then
these merchant firms took over some of the Govern-
ment technical men and a skilled European or two,
and determined to make a bid for the work them-
selves. The Government, however, got on better
with the treaty-port foreigner than with their own
countrymen, for he understood the work better than
his Japanese competitors; or, at all events, he carried
it out more satisfactorily. The Japanese, however,
worked very hard and conscientiously to oust him,
but were only partially successful.

148

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

Up to that time the Japanese business man, with
the exception, perhaps, of those occupied in agri-
culture, was not only not represented in Parliament,
but took no interest in politics. Then came the war
with China, and after it the nationalist cry of “ Japan
for the Japanese.” Well, we have heard of “Eng-
land for the English,” and even those of us who ad-
mire the notion in the abstract have come to the
conclusion that there is nothing in it in practice
from the point of view of a progressive country.

In Japan this fact has not, as yet, been fully re-
alized. The Japanese business man, however, one
day suddenly discovered that the business men in
other countries had enormous political power, and
when once he became convinced of this he deter-
mined, not unnaturally, to apply this power to his
own country. He did not want to bother himself
about taking an active part in the administration of
politics, but he determined to make use of the politi-
cal lever, which is strong in every country in measure
as the class making use of it is backed up by the
possession of wealth, for the purpose of forwarding
his interests.

The Japanese merchants considered that their in-
terests would be served if they could effectually boy-
cott or, at all events, seriously hamper their com-
petitors, the local foreign merchants, and they set
themselves to use their efforts to further these ends.

Briefly explained, the Japanese merchants were
strong enough politically to cause a law to be passed,
to the effect that Government contracts for plant

149

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

and material were to be given only to Japanese sub-
jects. This was ostensibly brought about on patri-
otic grounds.

It was desirable, too, that Japanese subjects taking
such contracts should be financially sound ; and the
Government provided for this in a very practical
manner. The law only allowed such people to quote
as had been in business for a certain number of
years, and who had habitually paid a certain sum as
income-tax. That was right enough in a general
way, but the sum stipulated was so great as to put it
beyond the possibility of any but an extremely small
number of firms to enter the lists at all. Then, as
if this measure were not sufficiently harsh, it was
further enacted that any one quoting for such work
must deposit a sum equal to about five per cent, of
the total contract, such contracts often amounting
to hundreds of thousands of pounds; and, finally,
that, when an order was placed, the contracting party
had to increase this deposit to double the amount.
The whole of this amount was to be forfeited in
event of any slight technical hitch occurring which
might contravene the stringent Government regu-
lations as to delivery, and so on. In spite of all
these precautions, however, the foreign firms did
not altogether lose heart. If they were willing to
fall in with the above stringent conditions, they
were still able to quote by passing their quotations
through a Japanese man of straw, in whose name
the deposits were made and the contracts taken.
But the worst was to come.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

The Government, while employing inspectors of
plant in the countries where such plant was made —
and it is to be presumed that such inspectors were
competent men — issued an enactment to the effect
that all plant was to be reinspected on arrival in
Japan, and accepted or declined as the case might
be, at their option, and after it had been passed by
their own inspectors elsewhere. This of course
threw a terrible risk on the shoulders of the mer-
chant contractors, whether native or foreign, as it
was not to be expected that the manufacturers in
far-off countries would take orders on such terms.

British manufacturers set their faces against this
measure from the start ; but both German and
Belgian firms, in their endeavor to oust British
trade, have accepted the risk from time to time ;
though I understand that they are getting tired of
doing so now.

To bring home the serious nature of the liability
entailed by accepting the local-inspection clause in
Japanese contracts, I quote below a portion of an
article which I wrote from Tokio for the Engineer ,
on the “ Government Inspection of Machinery,” in
November, 1897:

“ Manufacturers in England of the better class, whose machines
are accepted with but a cursory examination in nearly all parts of
the world, would be amused at the process to which their best of
tools are subjected on arrival here. It is no unusual thing for the
machines to be pulled entirely to pieces, and for the whole of the
paint to be scraped off the surface of the castings and other covered
parts. This portion of the work is carried out by more or less un-
skilled labor. Then comes a more technical man with a pot of
paint and a spiked hammer, and he minutely examines every inch

I5I

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

of the surfaces and taps them all over. With a small brush he en-
circles with a line of paint every imaginable mark that there may be
on the surface of the metal. Any little superficial roughness in an
unimportant place will be marked, and I have seen often enough
slight seams and hammer indentations painted round, on the sup-
position that they were serious flaws. It does not follow that they
will be considered as such at the final inspection, for I had occasion
to examine, among other things, some steel flues for marine work,
which were obviously good in every way, literally covered with
hundreds of painted rings, each one indicating an imaginary flaw.
These flues, after a great deal of delay and expense, were finally ac-
cepted.

“ To give an idea as to the risk that a manufacturer runs in ac-
cepting the local-inspection clause with regard to goods for Japan,
I cannot do better than refer to the large contract that was given
out for cast-iron pipes for the Tokio Waterworks. The contract in
question amounted to about 16,000 tons of pipes and bends of all
dimensions, from four feet diameter downward. The order was
divided among two British firms and one Belgian firm. The Bel-
gian house put in a very low figure, and received an order for 10,000
tons out of the 16,000 tons, including all the special work in the way
of bends. Of the 10,000 tons of Belgian pipes only 2700 tons were
accepted, and of the English, 4000 tons out of 6000 tons.

“ The greatest sufferer by the above transaction is the Belgian
manufacturer, who took the risk of inspection in Japan on his own
shoulders, and now finds himself saddled with three-fourths of his
goods after delivering them half-way round the world. The risk of
the British pipes was taken by two firms of merchants in Japan, who
supplied the goods in question, one being an English and the other
a Japanese house.

“ There is no doubt that, with the exception of a small percent-
age, the rejected pipes, whether or not they filled the specification
to the letter, were perfectly good for the purpose. The Belgian
pipes were somewhat rough-looking, and not always very close in
the grain ; but any one having occasion, as I did, to go through
the acres and acres of ground covered by these rejected goods
could only come to the conclusion that a gross injustice has been
done all round.

“ Apart from the loss to the contractors, it is estimated that the
inspection alone has cost the Government between ^5000 and
.£6000. One is not surprised to learn, under the circumstances,
that now that the Government are obliged to ask for further tenders
not a single firm, with or without a reputation, will quote.

“ It may interest your readers to know how this particular in-
spection was carried out. When the pipes were put on shore they

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

were attacked by an army of coolies, who rolled them about and
mercilessly applied the inevitable paint-brush and spiked hammer
all over their outside surfaces; and wherever the diameter of the
pipes was large enough to permit a thin man to crawl through them,
the same process was repeated on the inside. In cases where the
pipes were too small for this to be done, their internal surfaces were
examined by means of candles on the ends of sticks. As each in-
dividual pipe had to be treated in this manner, the process naturally
took some time and manual labor. However, when this had been
satisfactorily completed, and the pipes had assumed a generally
spotted appearance from the lavish application of paint, a gentle-
man, armed with a microscope and efficiently aided by a staff of
candle-bearers, and men with more spiked hammers, probes, and
appliances for cleaning the surface of the metal, minutely went over
the ground again to satisfy himself as to which of the marked
spots indicated a serious defect — t.e., a defect within the literal
meaning of the specification. This operation brought into play a
second handling of each individual pipe. But this was not the end
of all things, for every pipe had to be callipered throughout its
entire length, and at not less than four different points. If it was
found that in any part the thickness was below the specification re-
quirements the pipe was totally condemned, unless the thin portion
happened to be something above half-way down its lengthen which
case the offending portion might be cut off, and the shortened
length only taken over at a reduced price and by weight. . . .
Unless a manufacturer is prepared to undertake to accept these
conditions, or can get a local merchant to accept them for him, it is
not worth while making a contract for pipes at the present day with
the Japanese Government.”

In justice to the Japanese Government, it must
be admitted that these severe conditions as to in-
spection are enforced, nominally at all events, with
equal severity whether the importing agent is a
Japanese merchant or a foreigner. But the Japanese
merchants, no doubt, to a great extent on account
of their nationality, have facilities for getting over
these difficulties which the foreigners have not, and
they have many methods of recouping themselves
on one contract for losses they may have sustained

*53

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

on another. Consequently the Japanese merchants
find themselves prepared to take all sorts of risks
which a foreign merchant may naturally not care to
face.

It is alleged, too, though I am not in a position to
say to what extent it is true, that the native mer-
chants used an unjustifiable influence to bring about
the rejection of goods imported by foreign firms.
Whether such a state of things exists to a marked
degree or not, it is clear from the other facts I have
given above that the path of the local foreign mer-
chant in Japan is not altogether a smooth one as far
as the import trade is concerned, and it is clear that
if in the face of all these difficulties he manages to
carry on a trade which is mutually beneficial to him-
self and his compatriots at home, the manufacturers,
he deserves a very great deal of credit. He deserves
more than this — their support But he does not
get it, and for the reason that, as things are now in
Japan, the interests of the home manufacturer and
those of the local trader are not identical. This is
unfortunate, but it is none the less a fact

As made clear in another chapter, I am not a
great believer in the existence on a large scale of
such a virtue as sentiment or gratitude in business.
Did it exist in England, we should support our fel-
low-countrymen in Japan more than we do. But,
alas ! the British manufacturer wants to get orders ;
and, in practice, it turns out that he does not care
where those orders come from as long as he receives
them with a minimum of trouble and expense, and

*54

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

provided he gets his money. From his point of view
— a selfish one, no doubt — if he finds that a Japan-
ese merchant firm gives him less-trouble than a for-
eign firm, he prefers the former. And this is often
the case, at all events, when it is a question of Gov-
ernment work ; for the foreigners, in view of the
complications with which the Japanese Government
hedge round their contracts, very naturally try to
exact strict guarantees from the manufacturers to
protect themselves in some measure ; whereas the
Japanese merchant trusts somewhat to his luck, or
to his diplomatic skill, or to special favoring from
his own countrymen, whichever one likes to call it,
to pull him through his difficulties with his Govern-
ment.

All this falls very heavily on the foreign merchant
in Japan, and it is not to be wondered at that he is
pessimistic with regard to his position and prospects.
Over and over again trading people in Yokohama,
while complaining of the existing state of things,
have told me that the coming into operation of the
new treaties will be “ the last straw” destined to
break the back of their business, and that the effect
will be that most of the long established and best
known of these firms will leave the country.

How far this forecast is likely to hold good must
of course be a matter of opinion. But if, as we are
told, the days of the trading foreigner in Japan are
numbered, it does not necessarily follow that the
international business of the country will decline.
Nor does it necessarily mean that business foreign-

I55

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

ers will not be needed in that country. The channels
through which Japanese orders find their way to the
manufacturer may be changed, and the orders may
not in every case find their way to their present des-
tinations. Consequently, it behooves manufacturers
who wish to retain their Japanese trade to find out
for themselves the best steps to be taken to secure
that end.

Now the business foreigner of whom the Japan-
ese are in want — although they do not, as a rule,
acknowledge the fact — is the thoroughly technical
man ; and they want technical men in almost every
capacity with regard to modern industrial concerns.
They will not engage him and pay for him them-
selves, because, in their present ultra-nationalist frame
of mind, they like to feel that they can do without him.

It may, however, pay some of our larger manu-
facturers to send over to Japan at their own expense
men who thoroughly understand the details of their
particular specialties, who will be in a position to
tell the Japanese what they want to know. The
ordinary commercial tout, whatever his value might
have been in Japan years ago, is distinctly at a dis-
count now. The Japanese business people have a
good insight into modern business methods; they
have their banking establishments all over the world,
and they know how to make estimates and how to
quote for most of the ordinary articles of commerce
at the present day. But what they do not yet alto-
gether know is how to select their makers of the for-
eign articles they require, and they are constantly

156

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

misled by the catalogues of inferior and even of
bogus manufacturers. Again, they have not yet
attained the industrial experience necessary to en-
able them to get the best results from such plant as
they may purchase.

If, therefore, we are to assume that in course of
time the native merchant will wipe out the local
foreign merchant, who has stuck more to his home
manufacturers than the home manufacturers have
to him, the manufacturers will require to replace
him by technical representatives, as above explained.
Such men, if they are versed in all the details of the
industries they represent, and, above all, if they run
absolutely straight, will, by dint of educating the
Japanese in that one branch of modern knowledge
which they now neglect — the practical side of their
industries as opposed to the theoretical — be able, if
not to secure orders and do commercial business
themselves, at all events to direct orders into the
proper channels from their own and their employers’
point of view.

To make my meaning quite clear as to the class
of business man required in Japan at the present
day, I would say that he should be one who, instead
of trying to sell things to the Japanese, should pass
his time in visiting factories where his machines or
appliances were being used, and who could give
practical advice to the Japanese users as to whether
or not they had got the most suitable plant ; and in
putting them in the way of working such plant to
the best advantage.

x57

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

There are two considerations which are likely to
make manufacturers hesitate before sending technical
representatives of the above class to Japan. First,
there are comparatively few firms who consider that
the trade from that country would warrant the ex-
penditure entailed by maintaining such a man — for
he must be a good one — in Japan for considerable
periods at a stretch. Secondly, it is obvious that
when a good man of this sort has worked consci-
entiously for a long time among the Japanese, in-
structing them in the details of his particular indus-
try at the expense of an individual firm, another
such representative might come immediately after
him, and from another firm, and reap much of the
harvest for which his predecessor had sown the
seeds. I see no other method, however, than the
above for dealing satisfactorily with the Japanese in
their present state of industrial knowledge.

The ordinary foreign commercial man is almost
valueless at the present day, as an agent in Japan,
for representing engineers, at all events ; for he is
not able to tell the Japanese any more than they
know already ; nor is an engineer of much good for
the purpose unless he is more or less of a specialist
with regard to the subjects he is dealing with.

It would be a different matter were the foreign
agent to be able to deal directly with the native pur-
chaser, but as a rule he is not ; for he does not speak
the language well enough, and consequently he has
to negotiate either with the merchant firms or with
big administrations, nearly all of which have commer-

158

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

cial and more or less technical people attached to
them who possess a fair all-round knowledge of the
subjects in question themselves. When such is the
case, a foreigner, to do any good with them, must
know at all events a little more of his subject than
the man he is talking to. Many of the big foreign
merchant firms are increasing the number of special-
ists on their staffs ; but in the case of firms dealing
in many varieties of articles, it is difficult to have a
special man in each department. The treaty-port
firms, too, are beginning to alter their policy some-
what to suit the times, and are rather less unbending
in their attitude than they were in times gone by.

I cannot believe that the effect of the coming into
force of the treaties, or the unjust handicapping of
the foreigner above explained, or anything else, will
knock out altogether such firms as may choose to
adapt their policy to suit the new state of things.
The local trader, more than any other section of the
foreign community in Japan, has been the last to re-
alize the enormous progress which has been going
on. He it is who speaks less Japanese than any
other section of the foreign community, and who as-
sociates less with the people of the country.

Years ago such exclusiveness was all very well ;
for then the Japanese if they wanted to buy any-
thing from abroad had to apply to the treaty-port
foreigner to get it for them. Now this is not only
not necessary, but the Japanese merchants have,
temporarily, at all events, been able to establish a
serious and legal boycott injuriously affecting their

x59

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

foreign competitor, as explained earlier in this
chapter.

It would be absurd to suggest that as time goes
on the Japanese will become less capable of con-
ducting their commercial transactions themselves;
and, were it not for the fact that one may reasonably
hope that the existing spirit of “ down with the
foreigner ” cannot last forever, the future of the
local foreign merchant would be bad indeed. If
one applies, however, in a cold-blooded manner, the
laws of economics to the question, one can only
come to the conclusion either that in the long-run
Japan will have to treat the foreigner on an ordinary,
fair business basis, or she must come to grief, as far
as her progressive policy is concerned. Quite apart
from any question of war, the Powers whose business
people she tries to hamper in her own country could
in retaliation make matters so unpleasant for her as
to stop her outward trade altogether, and at any
time, if they felt inclined.

As stated above, the great stumbling-block to
satisfactory trade with Japan is the want of knowl-
edge of the Japanese language by our traders. Over
and over again I have heard it said that it is quite
useless to speak Japanese, because so many of them
speak English. In fact, the Europeans who speak
Japanese fluently seldom or never make use of it
when talking to a Japanese who speaks their lan-
guage even imperfectly, unless he is an intimate friend,
as it is said that the Japanese resent the use of their
language by a foreigner. But the fact remains that

160

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RELATIONS

the man who is not able to understand the language
of the party he is dealing with is often at a very great
disadvantage in carrying on an intricate negotiation.

In stating this I am aware that I am laying
myself open to the criticism that to suggest that a
knowledge of Japanese should be attained by our
local traders is to suggest an impossibility. But, if
this is so, it means that the Japanese must hold the
whip-hand over the foreigner in commercial matters
in their own country.

The British Government, which is not particular-
ly noted for the break - neck speed with which it
rushes ahead of the times, has long since grasped
the fact that it is necessary that its local diplomatic
and consular officials should speak Japanese, with
the result that at the present day at least three of
her Majesty’s officials at Tokio, including the Min-
ister, not only speak but read and write the language
fluently. The life of the diplomatic students, too,
who go out to Japan is made a burden for the first
two years after their arrival, in wrestling with some
of the complicated hieroglyphics out of the 80,000
which go to make up the ideographic system of the
written language.

The business man will tell you, and possibly he
is right, that life is not long enough to permit of
an exhaustive study of Japanese. If that is so, it
is to be feared that, from the moment that the Jap-
anese have completed their modern education, the
foreign trader, who once was placed on a pedestal,
and who, if not liked, was, at all events, regarded

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

with profound respect on account of his wonderful
knowledge, will have lost all his prestige, and with
it his chances of carrying on his business at a profit
to himself.

If the days of the resident foreign commercial
man are on the decline, those of the casual visiting
commercial agent are in a no more satisfactory state.
The local merchants, whether native or foreign, re-
gard such men as interlopers, who wish to have the
trade carried on in a different manner than accord-
ing to the established local routine ; as people, in
fact, who are likely to disturb their business methods,
and to do at the best but little good to trade. There
is also, too, a lingering suspicion in the minds of
the merchants that the new-comer is endeavoring to
deal direct with the Japanese purchasers, and over
their heads, or that his visit may eventually lead to
such a policy being adopted.

My advice to manufacturers is not to attempt
such a policy at the present day, but to direct their
efforts rather towards urging their respective Gov-
ernments to negotiate with the Government of Japan
to treat the local foreign trader as fairly as Japanese
traders are treated in Western countries.

CHAPTER X

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

No more striking illustration of the wonderful
adaptability of the Japanese character is to be found
than that afforded by the readiness with which they
have taken up Western methods of manufacturing.

Any one whose business it might be to visit the
modern factories in the Japan of to-day, and who
afterwards might pick up Rein’s Industries of Japan ,
thoughtful and excellent in every way as is that
work, might well imagine that what he had seen,
and what he reads in that book, had to do with two
absolutely different countries. This does not mean
that the industrial Japan described so ably by Rein
has ceased to exist, but that during the last few
years, side by side with the picturesque, effective,
and time -honored native handicrafts, there have
sprung into being the essentially progressive, but
inartistic factory chimney and its accompanying and
still more hideous workshops, built on the most ap-
proved of European and xAmerican designs.

My advice to the visitor to Japan who wishes to
enjoy himself and improve his mind is to study the
industrial Japan depicted by Rein; for, though less
obtrusive, it still remains, and is far more interest-

163

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

in g than its modern congener. Let him see the
making of cloisonne-ware, embroidery, rice-mats, and
carving, and admire the curios, toys, hand-weaving,
and painting, while these arts are still to be seen as
now carried on ; for my conviction is that if the old
Japan is destined to die, as we are so often told is to
be the case, mortification will first attack its native
industries.

To acquire the necessary efficiency in these old
crafts demanded a life-long application, commenc-
ing at an early age — that is to say, at a period of
life which has now to be devoted to more modern
and general education. Such work insured to the
’prentice hand, and even to the full-blown workman,
a remuneration so small as to be quite inadequate
to meet what will be considered as the necessities of
life to the Japanese of the coming generation.

The modern factory has had the effect of trebling
the wages of the Japanese artisan in three years, and
under such circumstances it is hardly likely that the
working classes of to-day will be able to afford to
stick to their old arts and industries at the old prices.
For the modern factory-owner is there to offer a very
high rate of wages on the condition that these natu-
rally clean people shall come and dirty themselves
for a certain number of hours every day in his work-
shops.

The only thing which has tended to save the situa-
tion in some degree up till now is the fact that the
artistic instincts of the Japanese revolt against the
factory system, the effect of which is to convert the

164

THE OFFICES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND COMMERCE

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

man into a machine — that is to say, to make him
work without intelligence and without responsibility,
according to the ideal of the modern trade-union.
For every Japanese workman is by instinct an artist
as well as an artisan, and consequently it has been
his wont to throw his individuality into his work.
This it is that has lent the artistic charm to a paper
and bamboo fan costing less than a half-penny, or to
the Japanese doll we find in Christmas crackers sold
to us for a few pence per dozen.

Most people who write about China tell their
readers at some stage or other that the Chinese are
so conscientious in imitating a given article that if
you were to send a tailor a suit of clothes to copy,
and there happened to be a tear somewhere, he would
faithfully reproduce the tear in making the new suit.
With the Japanese workmen the situation is re-
versed ; for if you tell a carpenter to make even a
plain wooden box exactly like a sample, the chances
are that the new one will vary in some manner from
the original. The difference may or may not be an
improvement, but it will be there. Thus it is that
the Chinese make better factory hands than the
Japanese.

It is owing to the tendency of the Japanese arti-
san to remain faithful to his native arts and indus-
tries that, in order to get factory hands in sufficient
numbers, the owners have had to lift wages to the
large extent mentioned above, and thus it is, as time
goes on and the growing generation gets habituated
to the factory, the artistic capabilities, of the lower

i65

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

class Japanese, at all events, will be crushed out of
him by the steam-hammer and the hydraulic press.

He will become demoralized as an artist and as a
man, but he will have gained in “civilization” and
importance. He will have become an enlightened
member of society, capable of reading his anti-capi-
talist newspapers, and of more or less understanding
politics ; he will have acquired greatly increased
wants, and yet be in a position to pay considerable
sums in support of a trade-union worked on the
most approved of modern systems.

Certain writers have from time to time pointed
out the small remuneration which has been meted
out to the Japanese workman, and have used the
figures somewhat unfairly for the purpose of show-
ing how down-trodden and unfortunate were the
workers in Japan as compared with those in their
own country. I can only say that I have not found
— even among the extremely poor in Japan — a tithe
of the misery and degradation to be met with in the
course of an ordinary walk through the streets of
London or New York, or in any of the big Con-
tinental capitals.

In Osaka and other big manufacturing centres
the accumulating factories are beginning to inaugu-
rate something of this sort of degradation of living
which usually accompanies prosperous modern in-
dustries elsewhere ; but up to the present the life of
the working people of Japan has not become suffi-
ciently modernized to compare either in dirt or mis-
ery with that of our lowest classes. No doubt,

166

5 "
o Z2

5- "a

(T> ?0

25

n

o

3 t/)

o' 25

3 <— i

o

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

however, industrial progress will effect this in
time.

The Japanese, when once they decided to make
their country a modern one, took the industrial bull
by the horns, and began by building railways.

The Emperor formally sanctioned their introduc-
tion in 1869, under extremely urgent pressure from
certain progressive statesmen.

In almost every country the introduction of rail-
ways has met with violent opposition from a large
and powerful section of the community, and Japan
was no exception to this rule.

Among the men whose names are now familiar
as champions of Japanese progress are some, strange
to say, who were at the time the most persistent in
their opposition to the introduction of railways.
However, when the Emperor had been gained over
to sanction them, this opposition was overpowered,
and their construction was at once proceeded with.

Not very far short of two hundred foreigners, in
all capacities, were engaged by the Japanese Gov-
ernment to organize and build the first lines. By
the time, however, that about one hundred and fifty
miles had been constructed less than twenty foreign-
ers remained on the staff.

To-day, with over 3000 miles of lines in the four
islands of Hondo, Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido,
there are only three foreigners left in the employ of
the Imperial Japanese Railways.

At first, with that wonderful forethought which
characterizes the organization of nearly all the big

167

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

projects of the Japanese, the Government took on
itself the whole responsibility of construction and
running. But when it was considered that the
Japanese engineers and business people had learned
enough of the details of railway working and man-
agement for private companies to be able to run
them, the Government granted, in 1881, a tentative
and very liberal charter to the Japan Railway Com-
pany, and, in order to insure the thing being done
properly, undertook the construction and working
of the lines for that company for a period of ten
years.

Since then a great number of charters have been
granted on decreasingly liberal terms, until at the
present day some forty railway companies control
the entire system, the Imperial Railways represent-
ing about one-third of the total mileage.

The captious critic has an easy field for finding
a great deal of fault with regard to the conditions
under which these railways are maintained and run
from a Western point of view; but if we bear in
mind that they were built to meet Japanese re-
quirements and not European, there is little to be
said against them ; and when we take into consid-
eration the extreme difficulties which confront the
railway engineer in Japan, in the shape of moun-
tainous country, earthquakes, and floods, with their
attendant evils, one can only admire extremely the
skill and patience of both the foreign and native
organizers of this now big and effective railway
system.

1 68

\

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

Simultaneously with the building of railways,
Japan began to create a modern mercantile marine,
and the Government has logically followed out its
policy by fostering this in a proportionately liberal
manner.

As Nature has provided the “ permanent-way ” for
ships, the Government did not find it necessary to
run their own merchant vessels, and they therefore
contented themselves with judiciously subsidizing
not only the private capitalists who ran steamers
but the native ship -builders who had enterprise
enough to begin building them.

This policy of the Government of nursing the
railways and mercantile fleet in a manner which
entailed very great expense has been much criti-
cised ; and it has over and over again been said that
the Japanese, in their state of vainglorious inflation,
were trying to do too much, and that in the end they
must come to lamentable grief ; but I can see no
reason for such a theory as far as railways and steam-
ships are concerned, for these may be described as
the necessary arteries of modern commerce, and
without them the Japanese could not hope to suc-
ceed in the industrial struggle for life.

The proof, too, of the pudding is in the eating,
to use a vulgar expression, and the railways, at all
events, have proved a great financial success. In
fact, I do not think that there is any complete rail-
way system of 3000 miles in the world which has
been worked to so great a profit per mile as that
of Japan. The carping critic is also very fond of

169

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

pointing out that many of the smaller companies
are in a very rotten condition, and so they are ; but
as fast as they become so they are absorbed into
the larger ones, and in the long-run go to add to
the general industrial strength of Japan.

With regard to the shipping subsidies, the Gov-
ernment are no doubt still very much out of pocket
by their enterprise, but everything points to the
conclusion that with patience and perseverance in
their present policy they will eventually have cre-
ated not only a very powerful, but an extremely
profitable mercantile marine as a permanent benefit
to the trade of their country.

In the solution of the modern industrial problem
in the country, the feature that strikes one most
forcibly is that, while in countries like Russia, Spain,
Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Mexico, and the
South American Republics, to say nothing of China
and India, in all of which the labor in the engineer-
ing and other “ skilled ” trades can often be satis-
factorily drilled into shape from native material, the
heads of departments and the active technical chiefs
are very often foreigners — usually Englishmen,
Americans, or Germans; in Japan this is not so.

Except in certain industrial concerns in the
treaty-ports, owned by foreigners, there is hardly
such a thing as an executive foreigner at the head
of any Japanese factory or administration.

A German or two will be found managing a
brewery, and a few Scotchmen in ship - building
yards, and so on; and that is all. You can visit

170

SHIMBASHI RAILWAY STATION, TOKIO

The chief terminus of the imperial railways. This station was built when there were
only eighteen miles of railway in Japan. At the present day there are about three
thousand.

MITSU BISHI BANK

■

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

arsenals and dockyards, and nearly all the railway
and engineering shops, and you will see no sign of
a foreigner anywhere. You will be received in a
foreign office by people in foreign clothes, with all
the paraphernalia of foreign business around them.
You will be talked to in English, as a rule, and you
will be shown through works built on English lines,
and filled with workmen dressed like English me-
chanics, working at English vice£ or at machines
with the names of English makers on them. But
you are the only Englishman or European there,
and you look around and ask yourself how it has all
been done.

Your Japanese friend does not tell you of any
foreign assistance, though you see the hand of the
foreigner in all. But where is he ? And your
thoughts instinctively revert back to the great
educational establishments of Japan, more particu-
larly to the scientific branches of the Imperial
Tokio University, and to the small bevy of quiet,
unassuming men who foregather at the little Tokio
Club, the foreign advisers still left in the various
branches of the Japanese service. Then it is that
you realize, for the first time to its full extent, the
colossal nature of the work carried out by these
men, and by those who have gone ; men who have
given their best energies and the best part of
their lives to bringing about the enlightened Japan
of to-day ; and you have reason to feel proud that
many of them are countrymen of your own. For
while the foreigner is no longer executive, and, in

171

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

fact, in most cases has disappeared, the influence
of the work he has carried out so thoroughly and
so well is apparent throughout modern industrial
Japan.

It would, of course, be better for the Japanese
had they retained the foreigner rather longer as an
active director in their factories, for signs are visible
everywhere that, in many cases, they have not yet
mastered all the practical details of the work they
are carrying out. The Japanese have among them
many capable engineers and technical men, but
their thoroughly skilled labor, in many branches, is,
and must be for many years to come, very defective
in quality and quantity ; and at the present stage it
is more the practical foreman, who can personally in-
struct the common laborer, than the theoretical man
who is required.

The weak point in the Japanese industrial world,
apart from the limited amount of skilled labor avail-
able, is to be found in the fact that the practical side
of the training of the highly educated man has been
more neglected than any other.

In England, when a young man leaves his tech-
nical college we look on him as having only just
gone through the first portion of his training as
an engineer, electrician, or architect, after which he
is expected to face the practical drudgery of the
workshops or drawing - office, as the case may be.
The Japanese have not yet grasped the fact that it
is in no sense a degradation for the man who has
paid for an education which has enabled him to

172

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

master the theory to dirty his hands in acquiring
the practice.

But until they understand this, the Japanese will
never work their factories to the best advantage, as
the heads of departments will never fully know their
business. They will come to realize this fact later
on, when the Tokio University and kindred institu-
tions have had time to turn out a sufficient number
of graduates to glut the professional market.

At the present time, the demand is greater than
the supply, and any one, on leaving college, can find
himself in an excellent situation. But this state of
things will not last very much longer.

Wonderful as has been the progress of the Japan-
ese in manufacturing by modern means, the state of
perfection at which they have arrived has often been
grossly exaggerated. They have done much, very
much more than it was anticipated that they could
possibly have accomplished in so short a time, but
those alarmists who talk about the Japanese being
able to oust us from the world’s markets are speak-
ing without their book, and without any knowledge
of economics. Such people have usually based their
argument on the assumption that Japanese wages
are still so low that, when they have become as effi-
cient as we are, they will make it impossible for us
to compete with them.

This would be all very well, if there were a law in
Japan that for the next fifty years wages were not to
be raised above their present scale, but as no coun-
try could enforce such a law, and Japanese wages

*73

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

are going up by leaps and bounds, and in the natural
course of things must continue to do so as time goes
on, the argument does not hold good.

There is another item to, be reckoned with in
studying the economics of Japanese manufacturing,
and that is that many of the materials employed in
their modern industries are much more expensive
to purchase there than in various other countries.
Now, as the Japanese Government have fallen into
the error of adopting a rising protective tariff on
imported goods, the cost of materials stands a good
chance of being enhanced simultaneously with the
price of labor.

Thus, with regard to most of our industries, we
may rest assured that we shall not be seriously
threatened for many years to come ; and we may,
at least in our skilled trades, look on the Japanese
industrial advance, not only with interest, but with
competitive complacency as far as our markets in
other countries are concerned.

Among the modern industries worked on modern
lines which the Japanese may be said to have mas-
tered in a manner which would enable them to com-
pete internationally, the following trades can be
mentioned: coal-mining, cotton and other spinning,
printing, type-founding, engraving, photography, in-
strument-making, boot, clothes, and match making,
brewing, bread-making, and certain branches of elec-
trical work.

I look on the Japanese, too, as being good rail-
way engineers in many respects, though there is a

*74

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

great diversity of opinion on that point. As manu-
facturing engineers they are not yet by any means
proficient on any large scale, and I do not think I
am going too far in saying that there has never
been made in Japan, as a commercial success, such
a thing as a purely Japanese steam-engine.

It is true they have made a few extremely good
locomotives, and these are almost the most difficult
type of engine to be made by beginners. I am told,
too, that these engines came out advantageously with
regard to cost price as compared with similar ones
imported from abroad. But while the construction
of such engines reflected the greatest credit on the
Japanese, one must not forget that they were turned
out under the direct supervision and from the de-
tailed designs of an English locomotive superin-
tendent.

Of modern ships of from 1000 to 4000 tons, both
for the navy and mercantile marine, they have made
many, sometimes under European control and some-
times without it, and such ships have been good in
quality ; but most of the intricate mechanism in
their construction was imported, and from a com-
mercial point of view they have worked out much
more expensively than would have been the case
had they been purchased from abroad.

Their largest effort in this way was the Hitachi
Maru , launched at Nagasaki last year, the regis-
tered capacity of which was 6150 tons.

In engineering and ship-building, however, great
progress is being made, and although the Japanese

US

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

may just now be debiting heavy losses to their in-
experience account, there is no doubt that the im-
provement which will come with time will lead
to Japan some day being a large engineering
centre.

Small -arms, and all that appertains thereto, are
satisfactorily made entirely under Japanese control
at the arsenals. They have not yet, however, suc-
ceeded in turning out large ordnance as efficiently
as it is done in China, at the Kiangnan Arsenal,
near Shanghai.

I saw in a recent book by a well-known authority
that there were many “steel foundries” in Japan,
but I can only say that I failed to find them. One
large steel-works, at all events, is in the process of
being started, but the Japanese until now even as
iron founders, on modern lines, have not been very
successful.

Wood- working by machinery, except for railway
carriage and wagon work, they have only just com-
menced on any large scale, and they have not yet
mastered the intricacies of the trade. Although
Japan is distinctly a timber country, she has until
lately neglected this department of modern industry;
and this is doubtless due in a great measure to the
fact that, as hand-workers in wood, the Japanese are
the most skilful operators in the world.

The building up of iron and steel structures, such
as bridges, turn-tables, and boilers, from imported
girders and plates is very creditably carried on ; and
in constructing what are known as “ earthquake-

176

THE NAGASAKI SHIP-BUILDING WORKS

MODERN INDUSTRIAL JAPAN

proof” chimneys made of sheet steel lined with
brick, and sometimes 200 feet high, they are very
skilful.

It is well to point out here an interesting simi-
larity between the evolution of the industrial prob-
lem in Japan and in Great Britain, which should go
some way to prove that circumstances have decided
that the destiny of that country is to be worked out
on British lines.

Years ago, one may almost say centuries ago, the
preponderating industry of Great Britain was agri-
culture. Long since, however, we have given up
seriously endeavoring to feed ourselves, and have
found it policy to allow our agriculture to go to the
wall, confining our industrial policy to manufactur-
ing only those products which afforded us the great-
est profit. With the money thus obtained we have
purchased most of our food from foreign countries
and our colonies.

Japan, too, has been essentially an agricultural
country, but now on a rapidly declining scale. Per-
haps it would be more accurate to say that year by
year her increased modern industries are absorbing
the labor available for agricultural purposes, and the
value of manufactured products is gradually assum-
ing the upper hand.

Agriculture still slightly preponderates over the
manufactured products, but I believe at the present
day the proportion is only as fifty-five to forty-five,
whereas a few years ago agriculture was a very long
way ahead.

M

177

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Japan is now importing her staple -food com-
modity— rice — as England imports her corn.

The modern industries of Japan are now dotting
themselves about all over the country. The greatest
centre of these industries is undoubtedly Osaka;
omitting of course Tokio, which, as a city, is vastly
more extended, and in which, consequently, the
factories, being spread over a far greater area, are
not so self-evident. Tokio, at all events, pulls the
industrial strings in Japan.

Osaka now may be said to be fast developing
into an industrial city pure and simple; and this
is no doubt why I have heard Englishmen call it
the Manchester, and Scotchmen the Glasgow, and
Frenchmen the Lille, and Germans the Hamburg*
and Americans the Chicago, of Japan.

One sees of course the idea which gave birth to
these respective similes ; and yet Osaka is not in the
least like any one of the cities mentioned, and never
will be; for the individuality of the Japanese will
always be strong enough to prevent the possibility
of their adopting any of our Western methods in
their entirety, even in the carrying out of their mod-
ern industries.

CHAPTER XI

THE EFFECT OF THE WAR ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

It is not necessary for me to dwell on the condition
of the Japanese before their war with China, beyond
recalling the fact that for years previous to that event
— that is to say, ever since the abolition of the Sho-
gunate — they had been absorbing Western education,
and adopting such of our modern methods as they
thought desirable, at a rate which would have taken
away our breath had we realized its extent at the time.

Speaking generally, however, the outside world had
no idea that the progress which was being made by
the Japanese was of a genuine nature. It is true
that we heard that they were buying many things,
endeavoring to copy our inventions, and generally
burlesquing our methods. I should, of course, be
plagiarizing every writer who had touched on Japan
during the last five years if I were to say that the
Chino- Japanese war opened the eyes of the foreigner
to the fact that, at all events as far as strategy was
concerned, the Japanese had really profited by their
studies.

The complete and overwhelming success of the
Japanese, however, came as such a shock to the av-
erage foreigner that he has been wont to date the

179

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

progress of Japan from that time only, and to ignore
the steady and conscientious educational “ grind ”
which the people of that country had been under-
going at the hands of their European and American
instructors quietly and unostentatiously for the five-
and-twenty years which preceded that event.

We are told that before the war the Japanese were
diffident, gentle, and courteous to the foreigner, that
they recognized his superiority, and so on. Now it
is said that at the present day they have lost all these
qualities, and that they are bumptious and self-asser-
tive. The fact of the matter is that, until the war
took place, the Japanese had not had an opportunity
of demonstrating either to themselves or to the world
in general the headway they had made. In fact, it
has been maintained by some that the war was in
a great measure brought about for the purpose of
making a practical demonstration of the sort. How-
ever this may be, it only stands to reason that their
self-confidence, which had always been a strong, if a
dormant, element in the Japanese character, should
become emphasized, or, at all events, be much more
in evidence than was the case before the war.

But, as victorious countries go, Japan behaved,
even immediately after the war, with wonderful
clear-headedness and tact. Excesses she may have
committed — excesses of exuberance, excesses of
speech, and excesses of expenditure — but she did
not lose her head, and, on the whole, her behavior
after her victory was exemplary.

It has been my lot to be in several countries

180

H.I.H. THE LATE PRINCE ARISUGAWA
Chief of the General Staff. Died during the war with China

Photographed by Ogawa

EFFECT OF WAR ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

shortly after wars, revolutions, and political up-
heavals of one sort or another had taken place,
and I can only say that I have never known a vic-
torious people to take their successes so modestly
as have the Japanese.

Among the more important, and certainly the least
noticed, effects which the war produced on Japan, was
the turn it gave to Japanese party-political organiza-
tion. It is not necessary to emphasize this here, as
the subject is more fully dealt with in the chapter on
“Politics in the Past and Present.” I would, how-
ever, mention in passing that the patriotic wave of
feeling which passed over the country at the time
completely swamped the hitherto increasingly an-
tagonistic feelings of the many political groups,
which were threatening the existence of modern
government in Japan, and brought all politicians
into one camp for the time being.

That Russia, France, and Germany committed a
gross act of injustice to Japan in combining to fetter
her action in China at the close of the war, and to
rob her to a great extent of the legitimate spoils of
her victory, goes without saying. England has cause
to be thankful that she did not aid and abet that un-
holy triple alliance. Not only was the combined
action of those Powers unjust to Japan, but it was
detrimental to the interests of civilization ; for Jap-
anese political influence at Peking just then would
have been the most healthy and efficacious tonic
that could possibly have been administered to the
sick Chinaman.

181

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

It has been proved past argument that Russian
influence in the Far East is not of a civilizing nature.
Should any one wish to compare the Russian and
Japanese methods of civilization, let him study on
the one hand the Russian administration in the
island of Saghalien, from which the Japanese were
ousted in 1875 by “treaty,” and on the other the
Japanese administration in the neighboring islands.
Let him compare the Russian convict prisons in
Saghalien with the Japanese prisons in Tokio. Let
him compare the methods of the Russians at Inasa
(near Nagasaki), which is to all intents and purposes
a Russian concession, with those of the Japanese in
any part of their own country. Let him compare
the primeval and degrading galley-slave system in
vogue on the Russian men-of-war with the Japanese
naval discipline.

Whatever may have been the immediate effect of
the Franco- Germano - Russian action in checking
Japanese influence, there can be no doubt that in
the long-run Japan will play a strong, if not a pre-
ponderating, part in the civilizing of China ; for the
Japanese understand the Chinese character a great
deal better than is the case with the people of any
other nation, and they have facilities in the way of
possessing a practically identical written language, a
knowledge of which Westerners as a class cannot
hope to attain. In addition to this there exists
between Japan and China a racial sympathy.

When once China has been really civilized, it is
not probable that either Japan or any other nation

182

EFFECT OF WAR ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

will have a great deal of influence with her ; but it is
reasonable to suppose that as soon as that process
has been accomplished China and Japan will be found
on the same side when it is a question of facing a
common Western enemy. That date, however, is
still so far distant that it would be futile to speculate
as to its probable effect now, or to do more than
point out in passing that an eventual alliance with
China in the dim future is the avowed dream of
Japanese politicians of to-day.

Although the Japanese appear to have just now
an undue contempt for the Chinese, and for Chinese
methods, there is no real deep-rooted hatred of the
Chinaman. There is none of that feeling of violent
animosity such as exists, for instance, between France
and Germany, Germany and Denmark, Greece and
Turkey, or Russia and Finland.

One of the most satisfactory effects of the war has
been that it has caused the Japanese to discriminate
between foreigners to some extent; for until then, in
the same ignorant way in which the average West-
erner was wont to look on a Japanese as being a
sort of Chinaman without a pigtail, so the Japanese
looked upon most Europeans and Americans as be-
ing a sort of Englishmen.

As Englishmen, because there were more Eng-
lishmen than other Western foreigners in Japan,
because English was the language which all local
foreigners had to speak, because England was the
country with which most international commerce
was carried on, and because the Japanese saw more

183

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

English ships than those of all other nations put
together.

The power of discriminating between the Western
races, which has of late years come to the Japanese,
has been, on the whole, greatly to the advantage of
the Anglo-Saxon.

In a general way the Japanese regarded the West-
ern foreigner as a rough, rude, dictatorial, and im-
moral man, with a long nose and having hair all
over his face ; who was always making a noise, and
was addicted to intemperate habits. He had, how-
ever, the redeeming features of being very rich, and
of possessing a wonderful store of knowledge on a
variety of subjects, which, when mastered, would be
invaluable to the Japanese. In conversing with un-
educated Japanese it will be found that the same
impression holds good very much at the present
day. Grotesque as such an estimate of our personal
attractions may seem to us, it is no more so than
some of the impressions we have held of the Japan-
ese; and when one bears in mind the fact that our
appearance is so different from theirs, that the man-
ners of our most gentlemanly and considerate people
appear abrupt to them, and that they have based
their ideas of us on the roughest and noisiest section
of the foreign community, we must admit that their
appreciation of our individuality, however unflatter-
ing and inaccurate, is at least intelligible.

International politics and trade, the dissensions
among the local missionaries, and especially the dif-
ferent attitudes adopted by the various Powers at

184

THE MARQUIS ITO

Photographed by Ogawa

EFFECT OF WAR ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

the time of the war with China, have caused the edu-
cated classes to discover the fact that there are for-
eigners and foreigners. And among these foreigners
for the last year or two the Anglo-Saxons, if not
liked better, are at all events more respected than
the rest, as explained above. The reason for this is,
not that our manners are, from the Japanese point
of view, better than those of other foreigners, for as
a matter of fact they often consider us more exact-
ing and dictatorial than the others, but because they
are beginning to realize more and more that, as far
as modern institutions go, their methods must be
based on our methods. They find that in the long-
run their trade with Great Britain and America
runs more smoothly than with other countries, and
they know more where they are when dealing with
us than they do with our Continental brethren.
They find also that, if we do not make many social
or business concessions to them, we at all events do
not bother them in their politics, and, above all, we
do not use our diplomatic organization as a sort of
commercial agency to force trade into British chan-
nels.

The comparative popularity of Great Britain with
the Japanese, dates, of course, more particularly, from
the close of the war. Very little distinction is still
made between Americans and Englishmen in the
minds of the Japanese, and incidentally the Anglo-
Saxon owes much of his present popularity to the
American branch of that race, for the Americans
have, as a rule, been more intimate with the Japan-

185

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

ese, and in dealing with them have been less unbend-
ing in their attitude than we have.

For a short period in 1897, when the Hawaiian
question was first on the tapis , the Japanese ex-
pressed a great deal of resentment against the Unit-
ed States, but this was mainly due to the fact that
America did not show a great deal of political tact
in dealing with the question; and, although Japan
had never any serious wish to annex the islands,
she no doubt resented very much some of the ex-
pressions made use of by politicians in Washington
with regard to herself. At about the same time, a
very material rise in the American tariff, with regard
to certain articles which directly and very serious-
ly affected Japanese exports to that country, added
fuel to the resentment against the United States,
but such resentment was not very long-lived.

Germany’s influence in Japan, which during the
Bismarck era was strong — so strong, in fact, that a
portion of the railways were built by Germans on
the German system, and even Japanese women
made a trial of discarding their picturesque costume
in favor of the most hideous ready-made apparel
imported from the Fatherland — is on the decline.
In fact, the railway in question has been reorgan-
ized, and is now worked on the British principle,
and the ladies have reverted to their national dress.

And yet it would seem that the Germans are doing
a thriving trade with Japan ; and, if we are to believe
the consular statistics, their trade is increasing. But
figures are strange things to deal in, and, when

186

EFFECT OF WAR ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

studying the German trade reports, we have to face
the complications caused by the fact that, in order
to make both ends meet at all, most of the local
German traders have to handle British goods ; and
not only this, but they have to pass off much of their
native produce as being of British make, even when
to do so the goods in question have to be shipped
from England.

The Latin races are not numerous in Japan, and
their influence is almost nil at the present day, ex-
cept that, if any Christian missionaries can be said
to make headway at all among the Japanese, they
are the French Jesuits.

The Dutch, who centuries ago were the most
powerful of all foreigners in Japan, and used their
power to have other foreigners massacred, are no
longer to be reckoned with at all.

Russia, of course, as a nation, is cordially detested
by the Japanese, although Russian residents are on
good enough terms with the people. There is al-
ways, however, a lingering thought in the minds of
the Japanese that a Russian visitor is a spy; for, as
a Japanese friend of mine put it, who had himself
seen the inside of a Russian prison for making some
sketches of fortifications in that country, “the Rus-
sians have no business interests in Japan, and it
cannot pay them to come and live here for the pur-
poses of business.”

Russian methods do not in any possible way ap-
peal to the Japanese, and, although Russia is Japan’s
nearest neighbor, the Japanese assimilate less of

i87

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Russia in their process of modernizing their country
than of any other nation. And yet Russia’s in-
' fluence is directly and powerfully felt, for had it not
been the fixed conviction that Russia was the nat-
ural and persistent enemy of Japan the latter Power
would not have seen the necessity of developing her
defensive equipment to anything like the extent she
has done in so short a time.

I have often heard it said that since the war, and
especially during the last two years, Japan has been
“spoiling for a fight”; that it did not much matter
who the enemy might be, but that she was consumed
with an ardent desire to “ have a go for ” somebody
or other. I am bound to say that during the time I
was living in Japan I never saw any sign of the sort
of feverish unrest which usually characterizes a nation
imbued with that idea. No doubt, if England had
seen fit to suggest a hostile co-operation against
Russian aggression in China at the beginning of
last year (1898), Japan would have cordially fallen in
with such a measure. There are no doubt many
who might have criticised her policy had she done
so, but she would not have been acting in a reckless
manner. She would have been following out a line
of action which she hoped might afford a means tow-
ards the end which she had mapped out for herself
in the future.

Japan’s ambition is eventually to hold the same
position in Eastern Asia as England does in West-
ern Europe; and to effect this will be the beginning
and the end of Japanese foreign policy for many

188

EFFECT OF WAR ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

years to come. In Russia she recognizes the Power
who is more likely than all the others to put ob-
stacles in her path, and, from the Japanese point of
view, it is Russia whose action should be thwarted.
Those nations, therefore, whose interests are at the
greatest degree of divergence from those of Russia
are consequently, for the time being, Japan’s great-
est friends.

I have not endeavored to enumerate in detail here all
the effects that the war with China has had on Japan,
as many of these become self-evident in the subjects
dealt with in other chapters. To sum the matter
up, however, the grand result of it has been that the
official seal of approval has been placed by the
nations of the world on the fact that Japan was to be
reckoned with as a Power who, within measurable
time, would have a right to be considered as one of
the civilized nations of the world.

After the victory over the Chinese by force of
arms, Japan scored a diplomatic victory over the
civilized world by successfully applying for a revi-
sion of her treaties with foreign Powers ; and Great
Britain may congratulate herself as having been the
first of these to accede to Japan’s request. If, on the
one hand, we may congratulate ourselves on having
done so, we have every reason, on the other, to
blame ourselves for the slipshod manner in which
we did it. For, as explained in the chapter on “ Our
Prospects Under the Revised Treaties,” the interests
of our fellow-countrymen in Japan were not proper-
ly studied in the contract we made with Japan, as

189

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

signed by Lord Kimberley. In fact, we have to
thank other countries, who subsequently effected
treaties with Japan, for such redeeming features as
the last of them contained in favor of the foreigner.
And we can safely say that had some country
other than Great Britain taken the initiative with
regard to treaty revision, the position of the foreigner
in Japan would be better than it is to-day; for we
should have realized the weak points in the treaties
of the other Powers, and should have taken some
trouble to insist on certain modifications when our
turn came.

CHAPTER XII

POLITICS IN THE PAST AND PRESENT

Japanese internal politics in their present form
are so kaleidoscopic that I shall not endeavor to do
more than sketch a general outline of the manner
in which the country is governed at the present
time under the Constitutional regime. Were I to
particularize in detail the different political cliques,
with their varying shades of opinion, or were I to
name a great number of the statesmen beyond those
who stand out in a striking manner, the reader would
be hopelessly confused ; and, what is worse, any re-
marks I might make would very soon be out of date.

The ephemeral nature of Japanese political news
was impressed on me most vividly when I had oc-
casion to send articles from Tokio on that subject
to a London paper. Writing under such conditions,
the foreign correspondent in that part of the world
does not see his handiwork in print for at least three
months after it has been written and despatched to
London ; and on more than one occasion, in perus-
ing my political articles after a lapse of twelve or
fourteen weeks, I experienced the unpleasant sensa-
tion of finding that what I was reading had been
deprived of its point by later events.

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Again, I find that though barely a year has
elapsed since I left Japan, the names are cropping
up of politicians who, if known locally during my
time, had given up till then but little proof of their
capacity. Some of these will doubtless make a last-
ing name for themselves, but most of them are
merely here to-day and will be gone to-morrow, and
of such it is as well not to write; for, under these
conditions, anything more than an outline study of
the details of party politics in Japan could be of but
little interest.

Looking back to an article I wrote from Tokio in
November, 1896, I find I said:

“ One of the most important effects of the war
between China and Japan has been the simplifying
of Japanese politics. In this respects, at all events,
the war has proved itself an unmixed blessing to
this country, in drawing together the very numerous
political cliques, which were daily increasing in num-
ber and in bitterness of feeling against each other.
Had it not been for the outburst of patriotic enthu-
siasm which swept Japan at that time, nothing could
have amalgamated these small opposing parties,
whose actions were rapidly bringing about so com-
plicated a political tangle that a dead-lock must have
shortly ensued.”

This was perfectly true at the time; and, as a
record of events, is perfectly true now. But whereas
in 1896 and 1897 there was a distinct reason for
going into that question, it has lost much of its
point now. At that time “ the outburst of patriotic

192

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT

enthusiasm ” referred to, occasioned by the war of
1894, still made itself felt in the Japanese political
world, and held contending parties more or less to-
gether ; whereas, at the present day, the strength of
that wave of feeling has spent itself.

Japan has had to draw in her financial horns, and
unanimity of political feeling has disappeared. It
is not that the Japanese are less patriotic now than
they were, but the enthusiasm which necessarily fol-
lows a successful war has in a great measure sub-
sided; and, in measure as it has done so, the petty
jealousies of party politicians, effectually smothered
for the time being, have emerged from their hid-
ing-places and resumed their activity. Thus it is
that just now political cliques are as numerous and
as diversified in their views as they were before the
war.

Before dealing with politics as they are, it is as
well to run over briefly the facts that led up to the
present state of things; and in criticising Japanese
methods of the present day, we must not lose sight
of the extraordinary fact that in less than thirty
years Japan has run through all the political phases
which lie between feudalism of the most uncom-
promising order and a Constitutional Government
on modern principles.

It would have been too much to expect that so
rapid and extensive a series of transformations could
have been effected without entailing grave political
errors, and delicate situations of many sorts. But
the most remarkable feature of it all is that during

193

N

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

the whole of the period in question only one really
serious internal conflict took place — viz., the Satsuma
Rebellion in 1877.

On the subject of this terrible struggle, which
took the form of a revolt of the most powerful clan
in Japan against the modernizing influences which
were at work in the country, and an endeavor to re-
instate the old order of things, it is only necessary
to say that it was eventually suppressed, and its sup-
pression drove home the last nail in the coffin of
Japanese feudalism.

One of the features which marked what is gener-
ally known in Japan as the Restoration — that is to
say, the abolition of the Shogunate, in 1867 — was
an oath taken by the Mikado, on the occasion of his
becoming vested once more with absolute power, to
the effect that a popular Diet should be established
in Japan.

The procrastination in giving effect to the promise
conveyed by this oath, and the differences of opin-
ion as to the actual meaning to be conveyed by it,
eventually led to, or at all events afforded an excuse
for, very serious political complications.

After the abolition of the Shogunate the Govern-
ment had passed into the hands of the Samurai,
who, while still belonging to the better classes, and
possessing in some measure old-time instincts, were
more enterprising and enlightened than their pred-
ecessors, and whose programme embraced from the
first the modernizing of Japan. Things began to go
too fast, however, for certain of the members of the

194

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT

Cabinet, who were strongly anti - foreign in their
feelings, and eventually their antagonism to the pro-
gressive policy brought about the Satsuma Re-
bellion.

But, previously to this, serious dissensions had
arisen in the Ministry between the Progressists
themselves. In the opinion of some politicians, the
reforms were not sufficiently sweeping or rapid.
This led to Count Itagaki, who may be described
as the first real Radical in Japan, and certain of
his followers separating themselves from their col-
leagues, and forming a party of malcontents on their
own account. This group of politicians has now
developed into one of the great contending parties
of the present day, the Juyu-to , or “ Liberal Party.”

This was the first split in the Cabinet, and took
place in 1873, and although prompt measures were
taken for the suppression of Count Itagaki’s follow-
ers, by imprisonment and banishment, and although
at that time the policy of these ultra- radicals was
destructive only, the party thrived and attained con-
siderable moral influence, though entirely devoid of
actual power. The strong individuality and honesty
of purpose of Count Itagaki, whose political enemies
did not accuse him of being anything worse than
a dangerously progressive man, were sufficiently
weighty to out-balance the amount of discredit from
which his party suffered on account of the actions
of some hangers-on of doubtful reputation.

In 1881, however, another split occurred in the
Cabinet, the leading dissentient being Count

J95

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Okuma. His party adopted the policy of insist-
ing on the establishing of a popular Diet, main-
taining that the Mikado’s oath of 1867 clearly
promised that such an institution should be forth-
coming, and that the time had now arrived for its
realization. This party, known as the Kaishin-to ,
or “ Party of Progress,” was in many ways as radical
in its leanings as the original “Party of Liberty”;
but although in a great measure the aims of these
two bodies were identical, they were absolutely hos-
tile to each other in their working. This was mainly
due to the fact that the individual ambitions of the
leaders would not allow these gentlemen to make
concessions to a rival political party.

In fighting his battle with the Government, how-
ever, Count Okuma overrated his strength, with the
result that he had to retire from the Cabinet, in
which he then held the position of Minister of Fi-
nance. Many followed him, and thus three distinct
parties were in existence in 1882 — viz., the Govern-
ment, at the head of which were Marquis Ito and
Count Inouye; the “ Party of Progress,” with Count
Okuma ; and the “ Party of Liberty,” with Count
Itagaki, as their respective leaders.

But while these two latter parties were at daggers
drawn with each other, their combined moral power,
which was always in antagonism to the Government,
was so great that it sufficed to wring from the Em-
peror a rescript to the effect that a Diet should be
formed, not immediately, but in 1890. In due time
the Diet was constituted, and took the form of a

196

COUNT INOUYE

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT

Lower House, all the members of which were, nom-
inally at all events, elected by popular vote ; and
an Upper House, some members of which sat
by right of nobility, while others were nominated
by the Emperor, and others by certain large tax-
payers.

Ministers, however, had nothing whatever to do
with either House, although they had the right of
speaking but not of voting. They were responsible
only to the Emperor, and could, if they thought it
advisable, ignore the Diet completely. Hitherto
the masses in Japan had taken no interest whatever
in politics, and at the present day the amount of
interest taken by them is very small compared with
the political fever which rages among the lower
classes in more advanced countries.

But even the moneyed, industrial, and commercial
classes had had no part, active or otherwise, in fram-
ing the laws or influencing the policy of their coun-
try previously to the forming of the Parliament.
The immediate effect of the new Constitution was
that the Lower House at once became thronged
in tolerably equal measure with partisans of the
“ Party of Liberty ” and the “ Party of Progress
while the Government, beneath whose dignity it
was to canvass, was left out in the cold.

The following table serves to show the relative
proportions of the various classes of society who
went to make up the members of the Imperial Diet
from 1890, the first year, until 1897, the eighth
year of the Constitutional regime :

T97

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Year.

Agricultural.

Mercantile.

Members of
Commercial
Firms and
Banks.

Barristers
and Public
Notaries.

Journalists.

Physicians.

Government

Officials.

Industrials.

Miscellane-

ous.

1890 ....

144

12

14

24

12

3

27

IO

5

1892 ....

175

15

15

21

IO

3

8

8

5

1894 ....

00

15

l6

24

l6

1

3

7

6

ON

00

156

30

13

18

II

1

5

1

3

From the above it will be seen that the agricult-
ural element has predominated in a very marked
degree from the first, and that, generally speaking,
it has maintained its lead ; that mercantile firms
have increased; and commercial, industrial, and pro-
fessional members, and Government officials, have
declined in numbers.

Mr. Yoshito Okuda, who was Chief Secretary of
the House of Representatives, criticises the prac-
tical working of the Constitutional Government of
Japan in the following words:

“Since the promulgation of our Constitution, no Cabinet has
been organized without a declaration of its platform ; and no Cabi-
net was ever in power but what failed to act up to its declara-
tion. But that failure was passed over by the people, as if not
deserving of serious consideration. No political party ever was
organized here that did not issue their manifesto, but they never
carried out their programme. Still the people did not blame them
for this failure. Again, the members of the Diet held out some
pledges to their electors, but their pledges were never fulfilled.
Still society passed that over without a reproach.

“ We are in a period of transition, and it is this fact that makes
the smooth working of the Constitutional Government difficult at
present in this country. The fault of the present state of affairs is
not to be attributed to the form of government, but to the state of
society at large.

198

OFFICE OF THE KOKUM1N SHIMBUN ( THE NA TION, A DAILY PAPER), TOKIO

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT

“ There is another fact that impedes the smooth progress of Con-
stitutional Government. It is the want of a proper balance in the
distribution of wealth and education. In other words, the present
condition of our society is such that the moneyed class in general
are at a discount in point of education, while the intellectually de-
veloped are mostly deficient in wealth.”

From the above it may be gathered that the po-
litical situation in Japan just now is chaotic in the
extreme ; and when we consider the short time dur-
ing which the present form of government has been
running, it is hardly to be expected that it should
have been otherwise.

The full number of members of the Diet is three
hundred, and they are paid a yearly salary of about
£So.

Suffrage in Japan is by no means universal at the
present day, as the following list of the qualifications
of voters will show :

1. Male subjects of the Empire of Japan, aged full twenty-five
years and upward.

2. Those who are registered in the census of, and have been re-
siding in, the city or prefecture for full one year before the com-
pletion of the list of electors.

3. Those who have been paying in the city or prefecture a direct
national tax of fifteen yen and upward per year for full one year
before the completion of the electoral list, and are still continuing
to pay the same ; and in case of income-tax, those who have been
paying the above stated sum for full three years before the com-
pletion of the electoral list, and are still continuing to pay the same.

Chamberlain estimates, presumably under the
above regulations, that the number of qualified vot-
ers in Japan amounts to only “ a little over one per
cent, of the whole population.” I think this esti-
mate is unduly low.

99

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Violently hostile to each other as were the con-
flicting parties who went to make up the Lower
House, their common war-cry of “ Down with the
Government ” at times enabled them to pull together
more or less ; but while, as above explained, the Gov-
ernment were practically unrepresented in the popu-
lar Diet, the nature of the formation of the Upper
House practically assured to the Government a ma-
jority there ; and, as the Higher assembly could veto
any objectionable measure passed in the Lower, the
position of the Government was practically so strong
that one might have thought that nothing but a revo-
lution could overthrow it. But the existence of a
popular Parliament, even under these conditions,
made itself felt from the first ; and freedom of speech,
which was granted simultaneously with the opening
of the Diet, furnished another strong weapon in the
hands of the Commoners.

While both Radical parties were clamoring for
the destruction of the Government, neither of them
had formulated any distinct policy to replace the
existing methods. It was at this time that numerous
other cliques were formed by dissentients from the
“ Liberty ” and “ Progress ” parties, and matters be-
gan to get very complicated, the more so as every
political party that sprang up had to be formally
registered, after which it was forbidden by law to
co-operate with any other party.

This was how matters stood at the commence-
ment of the war with China ; a Parliament without
a programme, and divided against itself in every

200

THE OFFICE OF THE NICHI NICHI SHIMBUN ( DAY-BY-DAY NEWSPAPER), TOKIO

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT

conceivable way, except on the principle of thwart-
ing the Government on all occasions. There is no
doubt that the Chinese diplomatists in entering upon
their war with Japan counted very considerably on
the unworkable state of Japanese politics to facilitate
the overthrow of that country.

On the declaration of war, however, the whole of
these differences disappeared as if by magic, and the
first practical proof of this was afforded when the
Government at Iroshima asked the Diet in 1894
for a grant of 200,000,000 yen, and shortly after for
another 100,000,000 yen for war expenditure, and both
sums were accorded without a single dissentient voice.

The war taught Japan for the time being the
necessity of unity in politics on broad lines, and its
effect was sufficiently great to cause the “ Party of
Liberty ” to formulate a policy and to make over-
tures to support the Government on a mutual basis
of concession, and thus it was that the strong com-
bination was formed between the followers of Count
Itagaki and the Government, as represented by
Marquis Ito and Count Inouye.

Count Okuma, however, who is looked upon by
many as the strongest statesman in the country, and
is certainly the most uncompromising and unbend-
ing in carrying out his policy, reverted after the war
to his hostile attitude towards the Government, and
strengthened the hands of his “ Party of Progress ”
by coalescing with five other cliques, who collectively
took the title Shimpo-to, which literally translated
means the “ Party of the Step Forward.”

201

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

In 1896 Count Okuma succeeded in ousting the
Marquis Ito, and placing this best known of Jap-
anese politicians in Opposition for the first time
since the abolition of feudalism.

Count Okuma strengthened his position by con-
ciliating the party known as the Kokumin-to, or
“ National Party,” of whom the best known leader
was the Marquis Saigo.

This combination of cliques held the reins of
Government for about a year with Count Matsukata
as its nominal head. Before its dissolution, how-
ever, many changes took place, the most notable of
which was the resignation of Count Okuma, who
was the real motive power.

Shortly after his resignation I had the opportunity
of a long interview with his Excellency at his house,
on the political situation generally; and while the
greater portion of our conversation had to do with
international rather than with home politics, I was
particularly struck with his summing up of the ques-
tion as to the difference between the working of a
Constitutional Government in Japan and in Great
Britain.

“Your statesmen,” said Count Okuma in effect,
“ are representing an electorate who have a definite
and material point of view. The electorate is the
force which guides them in their actions, and your
politicians are merely the exponents of the convic-
tions which go to make up that force. Your states-
men are pushed in their actions by that irresistible
power. Your Salisbury and your Gladstone, whether

202

POLITICS PAST AND PRESENT

in power or in opposition, are well aware that their
actions are backed by a real and solid community,
and in consequence they can accomplish great things.
We in Japan have not arrived at that stage. The
people as a power are not yet behind our statesmen.
We must act on our own initiative, and, however
good our policy may be, it lacks the practical sup-
port of a large section of the people, that great
moral force on which British statesmen can rely.
As we have no general following, so we have no
solid and popular Opposition, and in this we are
unfortunate; for it is the existence of a powerful
Opposition which calls forth the best qualities in a
statesman.”

This was towards the end of 1897, since which
time Ministerial changes have been frequent.

At the present day the Marquis Ito and Count
Itagaki are in power, and, all things considered,
this powerful combination is perhaps the most sat-
isfactory one for the country in these days of transi-
tion.

In years to come, possibly before many years have
passed, with the growth of education, Japanese states-
men may obtain that popular support from the
masses, which will only be forthcoming when the
lower classes are in a position to understand politics
in some measure.

What the popular verdict will be when that time
comes one cannot tell. Will the existence of a popu-
lar voice improve matters or the reverse? Will the
masses who now accept blindly the actions of their

203

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

leaders be able to formulate a policy which will be
any improvement on that laid down by the individu-
ality of the chief men in the State, as at present?
One cannot say.

Meanwhile Japan is lucky to possess at the head
of her affairs men like Ito, Okuma, Saigo, Inouye,
and Itagaki in these transition days.

Whatever may be the defects in the early work-
ing of a Constitutional Government in Japan, events
have shown that when a national danger menaces
the country the simple policy of patriotism, under-
stood by all, educated or otherwise, comes to the
front, smothers conflicting opinions and petty jeal-
ousies, and saves the situation in Japan — as it does
in England, for the matter of that. That is perhaps
the most tangible guarantee that we have that Jap-
anese politics in the long-run will work out their
own salvation ; and when we study the practical
effect of a Constitutional Government in Japan up
to the present, and notice its weak points, we must
not lose sight of the fact that its existence does not
yet date back quite ten years.

CHAPTER XIII

OUTLINE OF STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY

The number of islands which go to make up the
Empire of Japan is variously estimated. In fact,
one authority in giving a number very often will
not come within a thousand or so of the estimate of
another equally careful student of Japanese geogra-
phy.

This somewhat wide disparity is not necessarily
due to either authority being inaccurate in his calcu-
lations ; it merely means that they differed in their
opinions as to the minimum size of rock which
could be reasonably dignified with the name of
“ island.”

It is not, however, within my province to split
straws on the question, as, whatever estimate we
may choose to take, a glance at the map is sufficient
to bring home to any one in a forcible manner the
fact that Japan is made up of quite enough islands
to render very difficult the problem of protecting
them all adequately in time of wrar.

A study of Far Eastern geography should at once
convince those who had considered that Japan is
squandering money in a useless manner on her
navy, and is unduly subsidizing and otherwise nurs-

205

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

in g her mercantile marine, that in reality in these
two sections of her modern development should lie
the future salvation of the country.

It is doubtless because the Japanese of to-day have
realized this fact, that there are not to be found among
her politicians any to correspond with our “ Little
Englanders.” In spite of the trouble that Formosa
has given the Japanese Government since they took
it over, there is not a single politician who would be
in favor of giving it back to the Chinese ; and there
is no one to suggest in a serious manner the curtail-
ment of the naval programme.

No! This sort of “ Little Japanner” has not yet
been born ; and, should any embryo statesman, in
following out our Western methods, think that such
a policy might bring him self-advertisement, he would
find that the value of any notoriety thus gained would
be more than counterbalanced by the fact that it
would place him in a most unsatisfactory position
with his countrymen.

It is to be presumed that ninety-nine out of every
hundred of the Japanese islands would not be worth
protecting; for the simple reason that no foreign
Powers would find them worth the trouble of taking.
But, if we reckon the Japanese islands by tens in-
stead of by thousands, there still remains the fact
that the task of adequately protecting such scattered
and sometimes isolated pieces of territory could by
no means be described as a trivial undertaking.

If Nature has ordained that Japan shall be a spread-
out island-empire, and vulnerable as such, she has also

206

STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY

provided certain counterbalancing advantages, which
help materially towards saving the situation. For, al-
though any one of the more important Powers would
have no difficulty in hoisting its flagon some of Ja-
pan’s smaller outlying possessions, it is difficult to see
how, except in the case of a concerted action on a
large scale between the fleets of continental Europe,
it could wave there for long. However, if such an
eventuality were to come about, it would be of but
little importance to the aggressor, except as afford-
ing him a pied a terre for organizing an attack on
Japan proper.

“Japan proper” is usually said to consist of the
three islands of Hondo, Skikoku, and Kyushu ; but
for the purposes of this chapter, which deals with the
defences of the country, I am assuming that Hok-
kaido also comes within this definition.

I cannot imagine any more inhospitable place than
Japan from the point of view of an invading army;
as, apart from any question of armed resistance, the
geological conditions are generally such as to make
it an extremely difficult country to negotiate. From
the most northerly of the Kurile Islands, down to
and including Hokkaido, the formation is volcanic,
and the country as a rule barren. Very similar geo-
logical conditions also characterize the northern por-
tion of the main island.

It is true that there are extensive forests in Hok-
kaido, but these are not of a nature to assist the in-
vader, either in his advance or in his commissariat
department. And the island is so mountainous that

207

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

the advance of large bodies of troops through it
would be extremely difficult at any time.

Then, again, during the winter months, that part
of the country is under snow; it is always under-
populated, and, generally speaking, underfed.

Thus, even assuming that the invading army could
be satisfactorily landed there, and that its presence
would be of practical use in furthering the project
of ultimately conquering the main island, one does
not see how such an army could be fed for any
length of time.

So much for the most northerly natural buffer of
Japan proper.

The southern island, Kyushu, is, geologically
speaking, very similar in its nature to Hokkaido.
Its coast-line is extremely difficult of approach as a
rule; and, once on shore, the progress of an invad-
ing army would be impeded by natural obstacles at
every step.

For a variety of reasons this island would be likely
to play a far more important part in a defensive and
offensive war than Hokkaido.

It is true that the Japanese do not disguise from
themselves the fact that Russia is their real and
serious enemy, and incidentally any Powers who may
be co-operating with that country.

Geographically speaking, one would expect thai
the direction of attack from Russia would come from
the north, but bearing in mind the fact that the
Russian fleet in Pacific waters at the present day
would be totally incapable of coping with Japan, it

208

STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY

is to be presumed that in the event of an attempted
invasion Russian ships would have to be sent out
from Europe. Consequently it is rather in the
southerly portion of Japanese waters that one would
expect the first encounter to take place.

It is also to be presumed that Russia would never,
that is to say, within the measurable future, attack
Japan single-handed with a view to invasion of
Japanese territory. Thus, in event of a combined
attack, one could take it that the headquarters of the
fleet or fleets of Russia’s co-operators would be south
rather than north of Japan.

Again, it is to be presumed that Russia would
never venture on open hostilities until she had
practically obtained possession of the Corean pen-
insula; and this would also point to the south as
the primary basis of hostilities.

Recent politics have shown us that Russian in-
fluence is extending in that part of the world.
Holding Port Arthur and Talien-wan as she does,
and pursuing a bullying policy at Peking, backed up
with the practical menace of a huge military force
as near to the Corean and Chinese frontiers as she
can place them, and with powerful diplomatic
agencies in Corea and China, we may look in the
not very far-off future to the undisputed prepon-
derance of Russian influence in Corea, unless Great
Britain and Japan take measures to prevent such a
catastrophe.

The extension of Russian influence in Corea is
precisely what Japan does not wish for, as, if it is

209

o

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

effected, the integrity of the Japanese Empire would
be powerfully menaced.

The island of Kyushu, which, except for the small-
er islands of Tsushima and Iki, is the nearest portion
of Japanese territory to Corea, would seem to be the
natural theatre of a future war, at all events in its
early stages.

As explained above, the geological formation of
Kyushu is very similar to that of Hokkaido, but it
would be more advantageous to the invader in that
it is prolific in rice and other food products, and is
essentially the most productive coal centre in Japan.

In view of the rugged coast -line it is difficult to
see, as fleets in that part of the world go at the pres-
ent day, how it would be possible for Russia, or
any continental European power, to effect a footing
there in the face of Japan’s very efficient and ever
increasing naval strength.

The strategical sketch-map which will be found
facing page 198 has been drawn up for the purpose
of emphasizing the following features: The dis-
position of the various Army Divisions, Naval Sta-
tions, Government and private Dock-yards and Ar-
senals ; those portions of the railway system, existing
and projected, which touch on strategical influences ;
the positions of the rice and coal producing centres ;
and the chief mountain ranges.

In order to make this map as clear as possible, I
have omitted the names and divisions of provinces
and all irrelevant matter.

As far as territorial defences are concerned, the

210

THE IMPERIAL NAVAL DOCKYARD, YOKOSUKA

STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY

Japanese are equipping themselves on a scale which
English people might consider excessive.

It may be taken for granted that, like our own,
the Japanese Army, however efficient, could never
afford a sufficient protection to the country without
a proportionately strong Navy.

If Japan were to attack a foreign country, it must
be by sea in the first place ; and, in protecting her-
self from an outside foe, her primary arm must be
her Navy.

Possibly Japan runs a greater risk of being in-
vaded than Great Britain, and has consequently
found it advisable to equip herself adequately to
meet a force presumed to be already landed in her
country; possibly, too, her present large Standing
Army will be reduced in measure as the strength of
her Navy increases. If there were to be a tendency
to curtail the expenses in one or other of the two
services, it would be the Army rather than the Navy
which would first feel the effect of an economical
policy on the part of the Government.

As matters stand at present, the territorial Army
numbers rather over half a million men of all ranks,
including about ten thousand officers.

These forces are distributed in twelve divisions,
of which the respective headquarters are in the fol-
lowing localities: In the island of Hokkaido, Sap-
poro; in Hondo, Hirosaki, Sendai, Tokio, Kana-
sawa, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuchiyama, and Hiroshima;
in Kyushu, Kumamoto, and Kokura; and in Shiko-
ku, Marungame.

2 1 1

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

In the three smaller islands it will be seen that all
these military centres, except Kumamoto in Kyushu,
are directly in touch with the railway system, such
as it is in those islands.

Of the eight stations on the main island, six are
on the railways — Fukuchiyama and Kanasawa being
the only exceptions. Of these Kanasawa has a rail-
way within a few miles of it, and both will shortly
be connected with the rest of the railway system, as
shown by the projected lines on the map.

Apart from the regular army divisions above
specified, a considerable force is maintained in the
island of Tsu (Tsushima), which lies half-way be-
tween Kyushu and the Corean coast, and which is
rightly regarded as one of the most important stra-
tegical outposts of the Empire.

Formosa also is fairly strongly garrisoned.

From a first glance at this map it would seem
that, while the Pacific side of the main island is
thoroughly provided with territorial defence, the
western side, which is the nearer to the Asiatic con-
tinent, is still somewhat badly equipped with rail-
ways and with military stations. It would seem too
that the projected railways in this portion of the
island have not been based on an ideal method from
a strategical point of view, as instead of running for
great distances more or less parallel with the coast,
and between important centres, they have taken the
form as a rule of short lines running down to the
coast, at various places, from points in the interior.
This unusual laying-out of the projected railways is

STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY

due to the irregular nature of the country, which
makes it impossible to run a line of railway along
the coast for any great distance at a stretch on that
side of the island.

At some points along the coast the mountains
run almost sheer down into the sea, thereby placing
obstacles in the way, not only of the railway pro-
moters, but of an invading force.

Another natural protection to this coast lies in
the fact that along a great portion of its length it is
practically unapproachable by big ships owing to the
innumerable rocks and shallows.

Of the actual coast defences of the country I am
not in a position to say much. The Japanese Gov-
ernment were very obliging in allowing me to see
what I wanted to see, provided always my require-
ments did not clash with what they preferred my
not seeing ; and, as I was asked at the time not to
write in a detailed manner on that subject to the
papers which I was representing, I cannot very well
deal with it in a book.

Suffice it for me to say that, in the opinions of
naval and military expert foreigners who know the
country well, the defensive strength of Japan, as far
as the four principal islands and some of the others
are concerned, is extremely efficient, both naturally
and artificially.

It is difficult to make a comparison between the
defences of Japan and those of any other country,
as, with the exception of Great Britain, there is no
other important insular nation whose circumstances

213

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

are at all parallel ; and Great Britain happens to be
better protected in the way of artificial coast defence
than any other country.

It is safe to say, however, that as a rule the im-
portant cities of Japan are extremely well placed
from the point of view of safety against bombard-
ment.

Tokio, the capital, lies well inside a lengthy bay,
the entrance of which is protected by the most im-
portant naval station in the country — Yokosuka,
which may be described as a little Chatham ; while
the Osaka district, the centre of industrial wealth,
is protected most efficiently by the island of Shikoku
and the Inland Sea.

The map shows that there are three entrances to
this most beautiful stretch of water — viz., the Shim-
onoseki Straits, the Kii Channel, and the Bungo
Channel.

Of these the first and second are strongly and
quite adequately fortified, the Shimonoseki Straits
being narrow, and the Kii Channel being almost
spanned at one point by the island of Awaji ; the
tolerably wide Bungo Channel being the only weak
spot. It is however expected that, at one point, the
water is sufficiently shallow to permit of the erec-
tion of forts in the sea which will command the
whole channel.

However, should a foreign fleet succeed in forcing
this passage, it would have to solve the dual prob-
lem of threading its way through the intricate net-
work of islands, which are difficult enough of navi-

214

THE NAGASAKI DOCK

STRATEGICAL GEOGRAPHY

gation in times of peace, and of finding itself face
to face with any force which the second naval yard
of the country — Kure — could produce.

On the map the position of Nagasaki looks some-
what exposed, but as a matter of fact it lies in a sort
of Norwegian fjord, the adequate protection of which
is a comparatively simple matter.

At Nagasaki is to be found the best dock accom-
modation in Japan, in the shape of the Mitsu Bishi
Dock. Here one may often see the ships of the
Russian and other fleets undergoing repairs ; and
this fact must cause the student of Far Eastern
strategy to ask himself at a very early stage of his
studies where in the world any of the Powers except
Great Britain and Japan would go to get their ships
docked in event of a war in eastern Asiatic waters.

The growing Government Dock-yard of Sasebo is
also in the neighborhood of Nagasaki.

The plant for starting the Sasebo Dock-yard was
brought from Port Arthur when that place was capt-
ured by the Japanese during the war with China,
and has been supplemented from time to time by
machinery from Europe and America.

A fourth Government Dock-yard will shortly be
established at Maidzuru on the western coast of
Hondo. At that place there is a wonderful natural
harbor and a good anchorage ; and it is almost the
only spot on that coast which can be described as
at all suitable for a naval station.

On the strategical map I have shown, by black
stars and red dots, the parts of the country where

2T5

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

coal and rice are produced respectively, as these are
two most important products to locate in dealing
with the question of strategy.

In connection with the railway service it is of in-
terest to note that, looked at as a means of trans-
porting large bodies of troops at short notice, the
system leaves something to be desired.

During the war with China it was found that the
dislocation of the traffic due to the single-line system
was a great impediment to efficient working. Then
again those of our politicians who are clamoring for
the suppression of the wide gauge in India and Cey-
lon, or at all events who would have all new lines
built on the metre gauge, should bear in mind that,
though the Japanese gauge is somewhat wider than
that, great difficulty was experienced, owing to the
fact that the carriages on their 3 feet 6 inch gauge
lines were not wide enough to admit of horses stand-
ing “athwart ship” in them ; thus occasioning great
loss of space and time in despatching the cavalry
regiments to the port of embarkation.

CHAPTER XIV

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

When Formosa was ceded to Japan at the close
of the war with China, as a portion of the spoils of
victory, there were many people who foretold that
from that time forward Japan would formulate an
aggressive colonial policy ; and certain London
papers went so far as to say that unless Japan
adopted some such measure she would never realize
her dream of becoming one of the Great Powers.

I confess I could not see the force of this argu-
ment, for the acquisition of colonies has not, in it-
self, a strengthening influence on a country. In
fact, unless colonies are a necessity to a nation,
their tendency is often to weaken the mother-
country rather than otherwise.

If we take examples from other countries, we find
that Great Britain is strengthened by her colonies
because her increasing population forces her people
away from home to live in other parts of the world.
Thus communities are formed with a nucleus of
British subjects who mean to make of such places
their definite homes ; and under such circumstances
the British flag, in due course, finds its way there
and remains planted on the spot; not protected so

217

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

much by a display of arms, or by the presence of an
undue number of British officials, as by the moral
force created by the vested interests of the residents,
backed up by a knowledge, on the part of possible
enemies, that British warships can be forthcoming
if required.

In the natural sequence of events, our merchant
vessels find their way to such places, and the trade
is mainly, but not exclusively, in British hands.

The Dutch possessions are somewhat of the same
class. Such colonies pay and strengthen the hands
of their mother-country.

The other side of the colonial policy is shown by
France, who, with a decreasing population, holds
colonies as a luxury, and because she thinks that
if we possess them, she ought to show the world
that she can do the same even at great cost and
inconvenience.

Spain again, whose energy at the present time is
not what it was, has been obliged to hand over her
colonies to a more progressive nation, who may or
may not find them an advantage.

The position of Spain without her colonies will
probably be stronger than was the case when she
had to expend large sums and many lives in en-
deavoring to hold on to them during the recent
years of revolt.

I fancy that the Japanese colonial expansion scare
had its rise in an assumption that because Britain
had a large Navy and Mercantile Marine, and Japan
was rapidly increasing hers on British lines, the uses

218

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

she intended to put them to must necessarily be
identical with ours. Again, no doubt, it was thought
that the elation of the Japanese at the close of their
war might occasion them to make a rush for colonial
expansion.

After the war between Japan and China, people
in Europe began to absorb a certain amount of
Japanese geography, physical and otherwise, and
one of the facts that the world generally began to
realize was that only about twelve per cent, of the
area of the whole country was under cultivation or
capable of being cultivated.

We also began to appreciate that the population
of Japan was a steadily growing one, and it was
only natural that, under the circumstances, some of
us should say that the natural remedy for this sort
of thing was to be found in colonization.

There were, however, two reasons why this policy
was not entered upon, and either of them was suf-
ficient in itself to restrain Japanese colonization.

Firstly, Japan had no surplus population for colo-
nizing purposes at the time ; and secondly, there
was no territory available.

With a growing population, however, and an
agricultural area which has reached its limit of ex-
pansion, some natural or artificial factor must be
brought in to provide the people with a means of
livelihood, or the surplus population would have to
leave the country.

That factor has been supplied by the vast increase
in the new industries, which have not only found

219

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

work for the increasing population, but have even
caused a dearth in agricultural and other labor.

These industries are still multiplying, and, as
pointed out in another chapter, Japan is now obliged
to import much of her food from abroad.

When we add to the dearth of labor caused by
these industries the further drain on the lower
classes occasioned by the increase in the strength
of the naval and military forces, and when we con-
sider that the men at the head of the State, and the
leading people throughout the country, still have
their hands more than full with every sort of pro-
gressive undertaking at home, we shall find that the
time is not yet ripe for the serious consideration of
an extension of territory, even if such territory were
to be available.

The Japanese have their new colony in the shape
of Formosa, and this in itself has offered more than
enough in the way of problems for solution to states-
men and students of colonial policy for the time
being.

The only outward and visible sign which the
Japanese gave which might seem to indicate that
they had a notion that some day they might wish to
extend their empire was afforded by the organizing
of a Colonial Department, with a Colonial Minis-
ter at its head. Such a department was not neces-
sary under the circumstances, and the Government
quickly realized that fact.

Possibly its being started was due to that spirit
of megalomania which we so often hear about ; but

220

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

at all events, whether this was so or not, from the
moment it was considered to be unnecessary the
Government took no half measures, such as curtail-
ing expenses and calling the department by a less
high-sounding name. They merely suppressed it,
with that suddenness which characterizes so many
of their important changes — that suddenness which
makes Japanese politics so difficult to follow, and
an attempt to describe them satisfactorily so dis-
heartening.

When Russia, France, and Germany combined to
prevent Japan from annexing Corea after the war,
they deprived her of the only portion of the main-
land of the Asiatic continent which would have
made her a suitable colony or which she coveted ;
certainly, too, it was the only portion of the main-
land which she stood a probable chance of being
able to hold.

Her reasons for desiring to possess Corea were
substantial and logical. Firstly, Corea had already
a large Japanese population; secondly, as long as it
was under Chinese protection, the progressive policy
adopted by the Japanese, and essential to her newly
born line of action, could not be brought to bear
in that country; thirdly, its possession would have
strengthened Japanese influence at Peking, an in-
fluence which would at once have been healthy,
friendly, and in the interests of civilization ; fourthly,
Japan considered, rightly or wrongly, that Corea
would have formed an advantageous “ buffer ” terri-
tory against Russian aggression in North China.

22

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

It is to be presumed that England and America,
at all events, would have been glad to see Corea in
the hands of the Japanese, even from a purely selfish
point of view ; as apart from the purpose of opening
up that peninsula, and the improvement in inter-
national commerce which would have been entailed
thereby, it would mean that we should have had a
very powerful moral, if not actual, ally in Japan.
With so great a stake in the mainland of that part
of the world Japan would have been obliged, had the
necessity arisen, to have borne most of the brunt of
such warfare as might be entailed in opposing Rus-
sia’s aggressive policy — a policy which we profess to
deplore and even to resent, but which, apparently,
we do not see our way to check.

Whether Japan would have been strong enough
to hold her own against Russia in Corea, had the
occasion arisen, I do not profess to know. It has
been said that, though Japan might carry on a suc-
cessful sea and land war against the Chinese, the
situation would be reversed if she were to find her-
self face to face with a white enemy.

How far Russians in that part of the world are
to be considered “ white ” is a matter of opinion ;
but one thing we do know, and that is that the ex-
tension of Russian territory — in Asia, at all events —
has not as a rule been occasioned by actual force
of arms, but by a display of strength, backed by
judicious and extensive bribery.

It is an open secret that the success of Russian
policy in North China has been due to the diplo-

222

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

macy of the “palm,” and that his Excellency, Li
Hung Chang, has been among the largest recipients
of largesse from St. Petersburg.

The smoothing of the palm policy has been, when-
ever the occasion demanded it, alternated with that
of the shaking of the fist; in other words, by the
massing of troops in the nearest available territory.
But it has never come to blows.

Russia’s policy on the Afghan frontier has been
precisely of a similar nature ; and there royalty,
in the shape of the Ameer’s son, is said to have suc-
cumbed to the practical pecuniary blandishments of
Russia.

Turning to Europe, we find that Russia has con-
quered and absorbed Finland, and portions of Poland
and Turkey. Of these victories, one may say that
in Turkey Russia had to face an enemy who, at the
time, was about as badly organized and unprepared
as the China of to-day might prove. In Finland,
which in some geographical features bears, with re-
gard to Western Russia, a certain resemblance to
Corea in the East, Russia also had to deal with a
powerless foe, against whom she was able to concen-
trate the best of her energies, as the country to be
conquered was situated conveniently for her pur-
pose.

Of Poland it is safe to say that Russia would
never have conquered it single - handed ; and that
she only effected her portion of the victory after
terrible losses, and because Germany and Austria
were simultaneously attacking the Poles on their

223

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

other frontiers, so that they could not devote any-
thing like their whole attention to resisting the
Russians.

Of the two defensive wars worth mentioning
where foreign armies have invaded Russian terri-
tory— that is to say, the Crimean War and the
Napoleonic Invasion — Russia was defeated in the
former instance; and gained the day in the latter,
not by fighting, but by running away, burning her
own towns and cities, and allowing the Grande
Armee to starve and freeze itself to death.

This was a victory, no doubt, but not a victory of
arms — a victory rather determined by length of leg,
length of country, and length of winter.

My reason for dealing so fully with Russian war-
fare in a chapter on Japanese colonization is that it
is necessary to show that, if it is Russia who has
checked Japan in the past, so it will be Russia who
will leave no stone unturned to do so in the future.
Japan at the present day is far too advanced in civil-
ization to be a welcome neighbor to Russia, whose
policy, therefore, is to keep her at arm’s-length.

All the events referred to above happened a long
time ago, some of them a very long time ago ; and
the greatest optimist with regard to Russia’s military
strength would find it hard to deduce from them
that they have afforded a practical proof that her
prowess and capabilities are of an overwhelming
nature in the actual field of battle, except in so far
as numerical strength is concerned. Have we any
right to assume that in facing the armies of to-day

224

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

p

225

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

she would be able to do better than she did in times
gone by?

Experts in strategy tell us that Corea is not an
easy country to invade from the land, and that there
appears to be no reason why a well organized, if
comparatively small, defending army should not be
able to hold its own against very heavy odds. It is
for this reason that Japan, if once properly installed
in that peninsula, might possibly defend it against
Russia, if it were a question of coming to blows ; and
Russia would have no possible chance against Japan
in attempting an invasion by sea.

At the present day this discussion may be con-
sidered to be of a somewhat academical nature, inas-
much as Japan is not now in possession of the Corean
Peninsula. So many people, however, maintain that
Japan is to become a colonizing nation, that it is
necessary to make some reference to the territory
which would seem, for many reasons, to be the most
natural one to form a substantial Japanese colony,
and for the possession of which Japan, at all events,
made a strong if ineffectual bid.

A glance at the map on the preceding page will
suffice to show that, whatever the force which was
able to keep Japan out of Corea may have been, that
same influence could be brought to bear with greater
strength to prevent her acquiring any other territory
on the Chinese coast ; so that for the time being, at
all events, we may dismiss from our mind the idea
that Japan will endeavor to colonize on the Asiatic
continent.

226

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

Then comes the question as to the direction in
which one should look to find the probable coloniz-
ing area of Japan, if she is destined to have one.

At one time people took it into their heads that
Japan wanted to annex the Hawaiian Islands, situated
half-way between her and America.

I do not think that she ever seriously contemplated
this step. Although I was living in Japan during
the acute period of the Americo-Japano-Hawaiian
question, and was in touch with politicians, diploma-
tists, and journalists there, I can only say that I saw
and heard nothing that could be twisted into mean-
ing that Japan had any designs on these islands.

She wished merely to protect the interests of
Japanese subjects living there; and when America
first talked of annexing Hawaii, Japan’s one and only
thought was to make sure that her subjects should
have, at all events, as much fair play as they had
had when the islands were governed by an Inde-
pendent Republic pour rire . Possibly the attitude
she assumed on the occasion when she thought her
interests were menaced was rather an aggressive
one, and occasioned some friction between herself
and the United States; but, roughly speaking, she
finished by getting more or less what she required.

Her main fear was that under American rule there
might be a tendency to treat the Japanese in Hawaii
as the Chinamen are treated, for obvious reasons, in
the United States. She also feared that the Mc-
Kinley and Dingley Tariffs would be applied to the
detriment of Japanese commerce.

227

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

The number of Japanese emigrants to Hawaii
has been habitually much exaggerated. There was
an impression to the effect that these islands have
formed the great recipient of the surplus population
of Japan. When I explain, however, that the total
number of Japanese residents in Hawaii amounts
to about 24,500, and that there are sufficient births
in Japan every year to people the entire Hawaiian
group three times over with a number equal to their
existing total population of various colors (about
110,000 people all told), it will be seen that, either
the existence of these islands as an outlet for Japan’s
surplus population is without importance, or that
Japan’s surplus population is very small.

My theory, as stated at the commencement of
this chapter, is that, in view of the rapidly increasing
industrial field in Japan at the present day, the
surplus population in that country may be treated
almost as a quantite negligeable , and that for some
time to come it will remain so.

Going farther afield than Hawaii, and dropping
for a moment the question of colonies in the politi-
cal sense of the word, it is well to point out that
strenuous efforts have been made during recent
years to colonize industrially some of the western
shores of Mexico with Japanese.

Syndicates and companies, owning Mexican terri-
tory, have been energetically working in Japan for
the purpose of getting agriculturists to go to Mex-
ico, and to carry on farming and other industrial en-
terprises.

228

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

The leading statesmen in Japan have been ap-
proached on the subject ; and in the beginning the
sympathies of some of them were enlisted in these
schemes. One or two such colonies were actually
started, but I believe I am right in saying that
they have not turned out satisfactorily ; although
one of the Ministers of Agriculture and Commerce
— I think it was Viscount Yenomoto — worked very
hard to make the first of them a success.

It is generally admitted that island colonies are,
as a rule, more easily acquired and more easily re-
tained than is the case with portions of territory on
the mainland of a continent.

If this theory is accurate with regard to countries
generally, it would seem to point to the assumption
that Japan, an empire composed of islands, and
having extensive naval and commercial fleets, should
find in islands the natural extension of her posses-
sions. It is said, too, that colonies strike down-
ward from the mother-country as a rule — that is to
say, that the mother-country usually lies in a more
northerly latitude than her dependencies. Through-
out the world there are only just a sufficient number
of exceptions to prove the general validity of this
rule.

Thus, geographically and strategically speaking,
it would seem that, if Japan is to acquire further
colonies, her future field would lie among the innu-
merable islands of the Southern Pacific.

This part of the world would also seem to be in-
dicated by the fact that it is there that the Japanese

229

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

trader and artisan are finding their way when they
leave their country; and another significant argu-
ment in favor of this view is afforded by the rapidity
with which these seas are becoming more and more
thoroughly worked by the Japanese merchant ships.

Already, as far south as the northern shores of
Australia, the Japanese communities are beginning
to make themselves felt as a factor, and an increas-
ing one, in the population of many of the islands
which intervene between Formosa and Australia.

The map shows us that the present Empire of
Japan stretches in one lengthy and fairly straight
line of islands, without any very wide gaps between
them, from Kamtchatka on the northeast down to a
point on a line drawn between Hong Kong and the
Philippines on the southwest. The effect of such a
position is that, given a sufficiently powerful fleet,
Japan would be in a very formidable position for
holding the seas, as far as preventing intercourse
with the Russian and Chinese seaboard is concerned.

Generally speaking, people have not grasped the
situation that, while Japan’s primary object in in-
creasing her naval strength is self-protection, her
ultimate aim is to make herself so powerful in Far
Eastern waters that her voice will perponderate in
international questions in that part of the world.

Pending the realization of that dream, it is difficult
to see where her new colonies are to be found, as al-
though there are hundreds of small islands which
could almost be had for the asking, all the larger
ones which are worth having are held by nations

230

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

with whom it would not answer Japan’s purpose to
go to war now; and who would not part with them
at a price which it would be worth Japan’s while to
pay.

Assuming that such islands were in want of a
tenant, Japan’s natural area for colonial extension
would be the Philippines, the Moluccas, and New
Guinea, as by appropriation there she would lengthen
her protective chain along the east of Asia.

But as matters now stand, to acquire those isl-
ands Japan would have to deal, amicably or other-
wise, with the United States, Holland, Britain, and
Germany.

At present she is not able to offer any sort of
quid pro quo in exchange for these ; but were she to
become overwhelmingly powerful in those waters, so
powerful, in fact, that her services could be utilized
to further other ends of the various nations who
own those places, there is no telling to what extent
the ownership of the islands in the Southern Pacific
might change hands.

We, who are accredited with holding on to our
possessions, have before now ceded to the Dutch
and the Germans more valuable territory than the
British portion of New Guinea, for instance, for a
return far more inadequate than would be afforded
by the co-operation of the Japanese naval and mili-
tary forces in, for example, enforcing our supremacy
in the Yangtse Valley.

There has been some talk of the Americans dis-
posing of certain of the Ladrone group to Japan

231

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

for a consideration; and it is possible that, had the
war between Spain and America taken place five or
ten years later than it did, the Japanese might have
gone in with the United States in her attack on the
Spanish possessions, and have shared the spoils in
the shape of the Philippines.

Before leaving the subject altogether, it is as well
to say a few words as to the one existing colony pos-
sessed by the Japanese — Formosa.

While all sorts of side lights, many of them un-
favorable, have been thrown on the methods adopt-
ed by the Japanese in colonizing Formosa, there has
never been a full and unbiassed account by a for-
eigner. Most of the reports which have found their
way into the European press have emanated from
missionary sources, and have been prejudiced, sen-
sational, and often misleading.

The reason for this is to be found in the fact that
the missionaries, however conscientious, have by
their actions, at all events during the early stages
of the occupation, materially increased the difficul-
ties which beset the Japanese in endeavoring to
establish their rule.

To understand matters it must be borne in mind
that the Japanese are not Christians. Now, their
policy in Formosa from the outset was based on
what is known as “ toleration,” and in following this
out they did not interfere with the religious views
of the natives, except in cases where these views
entailed, as they sometimes did, the perpetration of
the most horrible atrocities.

232

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

The business of the missionaries was to Chris-
tianize the Formosan savages, a process with which
the Japanese did not interfere. So far so good ; but
the missionaries, in their laudable zeal for the cause,
found it incumbent on them to preach the doctrine
to their followers that the religion of the Japanese
was a worthless one, and in some instances they
entered into the political arena against them.

It speaks well for the Japanese that, however
galling such an action might be to them, and how-
ever much the effect of discrediting their religious
views might tend to lower their prestige in the eyes
of the natives, they did not take forcible measures
to put a stop to this, from their point of view, inju-
rious propaganda.

There is no doubt, however, that some of the re-
grettable incidents which occurred between the Japan-
ese soldiers and the people of the country were due
to the feelings of the natives having been worked
upon by the missionaries in this way.

No doubt, in endeavoring to settle the country on
its new basis, blunders of policy were made, and at
times unnecessary blood was spilt. I do not think,
however, that, bearing in mind the condition of the
country and the savage nature of the people, the
sum total of these “ atrocities,” as they have been
called, exceeded those which might have been ex-
pected of almost any other nation placed in a simi-
lar position.

It must be remembered that the handing over of
Formosa to the Japanese did not mean putting them

233

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

in peaceful possession of a law-abiding community,
which had been governed by any sort of civilized
rule. In practice, the ceding of Formosa by China
to Japan meant really that the European Powers
acquiesced in Japan taking possession of the island
and subduing and reducing to order the inhabitants,
comprising between two and three millions of the
most dangerous type of Chinamen — a variety of
mixed breeds, in which the Papuan negro, the Mon-
golian, and the Malay predominated — and a multi-
tude of lawless and hitherto untamed savages of the
most desperate nature.

The Japanese are being guided in their Formo-
san policy by ours in India. They are altering the
native laws and customs as little as possible, and, as
above stated, leaving the people their religion. They
are establishing the Japanese language, and certain
military officers hold a sort of go -as -you please rov-
ing commission to experiment in making soldiers
out of the tribesmen. If the results of these pre-
liminary trials seem hopeful, organized steps will be
taken to deal with the matter on a large scale.

The inter-racial hatred which existed so strongly
in India, and helped us materially in establishing our
position there, found its equivalent to some extent in
Formosa in the hatred which has always existed be-
tween the natives and the Chinese population.

As an illustration of the extent to which the For-
mosan natives are uncivilized, it is interesting to note
that on one occasion the Governor-General, in pur-
suance of the policy of toleration, caused a mes-

234

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

sage to be conveyed to certain of the chiefs to
the effect that the new rulers would endeavor to
respect the native customs, and suggesting that if
they had any reasonable requests to make, the Jap-
anese authorities would be willing to fall in with
their views. The tribal chiefs, after consultation,
said that they were very happy under the new state
of affairs, but they had one request to make — viz.,
that as a certain number of Chinamen’s heads were
essential to the proper carrying out of their religious
ceremonies, and under the new conditions it was
becoming increasingly difficult to obtain them, they
would be much obliged if the Japanese, who now
had the upper hand, and consequently greater facili-
ties, would kill the necessary number of Chinamen
and send them the heads at the time required for
the propitiation of their gods.

In spite of the sensational reports to the contrary,
the policy of the Japanese in Formosa has, on the
whole, been logical, lenient, and careful, and there
has been nothing whatever in their methods so far
to lead one to imagine that they will be inca-
pable of dealing with colonial matters in the
future.

When I was living in Tokio I had the advantage
on several occasions of talking with Baron Nogi,
who was at that time the Governor-General in For-
mosa, with his aide-de-camp, and with his secretary.
I was shown several letters from European res-
idents in Formosa, expressing thanks for and ap-
proval of the methods he had employed in carry-

235

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

in g out his uphill task of producing order out of
chaos.

Among the difficulties to be met with in Formosa
may be mentioned a pestilential climate, cutthroat
and hostile inhabitants, squalid and filthy villages,
lofty and inaccessible mountains, the most prolific
rainfall, and consequently most extensive floods in
the world, an occasional earthquake, and a varied
assortment of insect life in its most unpleasant
form.

From the above it will be seen that any country
about to embark on a scheme of colonial expansion
could not possibly have had a better practical school
in that way than has been afforded to Japan by
Formosa, which in a compact space contains rep-
resentative samples of almost all the problems which
the colonist is likely to have to face, except at the
North Pole.

Under the circumstances we need not be hyper-
critical with regard to Japanese colonial methods, if
they have not succeeded after less than five years of
occupation in converting such a pandemonium into
a paradise.

But, as stated earlier, Japan is not greedy for
more colonies at the present day ; and perhaps, after
all, Russia may be said to have inadvertently con-
ferred a great benefit on her neighbor when she
forced her to relinquish Corea. For had Japan
continued to occupy that country she would have
been obliged to maintain a very large military force
there, which would have been an extremely serious

236

THE QUESTION OF COLONIZATION

drain on her already overtaxed resources ; whereas
as matters now stand she is able to spend all her
available capital on her navy, to which she rightly
looks for the solution of the question as to what her
influence on the world’s history is to be in the
future.

CHAPTER XV

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

Among the many sensational rumors that of re-
cent years have been floating about the world on
the subject of Far Eastern politics, not one has been
more persistent, and at the same time more vague,
than that which accredited Great Britain anc Japan
with having “arrived at an understanding.” In dip-
lomatic language “ an understanding ” is a very
convenient and comprehensive term. It may mean
anything between a definite and binding political al-
liance and a loosely made arrangement to adopt cer-
tain parallel lines of policy under certain conditions.

The “ understanding ” between Great Britain and
Japan was not, in any sense of the word, of a formal
nature, and yet its moral strength was so great that
the mere knowledge of its existence has been enough
on more than one occasion lately to prevent the
breaking out of what would have been the most
serious war of modern times. Its strength did not
lie in signed documents, for such documents did not
exist and were not needed; nor had it a foundation
either on bluff or on that bogus sentiment which
has formed the basis of certain international under-
standings.

238

JAPANESE MOUNTAIN ARTILLERY APPROACHING PORT ARTHUR DURING THE WAR WITH CHINA

Drawn by Bernard F. Gribble

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

The fact of the matter is that the trend of politics
in the Far East has of late years had the effect of
driving English and Japanese interests into chan-
nels which, if not altogether identical in theory, are
very much so in practice.

It is only during the last year or two that certain
Powers became aware that if they persisted in push-
ing an aggressive policy in the Far East beyond a
certain point there would come a time when neither
England nor Japan would allow such a state of af-
fairs to go on. The only result to be expected from
such an eventuality would be that England and
Japan must act in concert to check such aggression.
The allied fleets of these two countries would have
no difficulty in becoming masters of the seas and
the coast-lines in that part of the world.

In dealing with the question of a possible Anglo-
Japanese alliance one must run over in a brief way
some of the salient points with regard to recent in-
ternational politics in the Far East ; and this neces-
sitates my departing to some extent from the policy
laid down in this book of dealing with Japan only; for
China has been, of course, the principal political arena.

Speaking generally, the vital interests of Great
Britain in China are centred in the Yangtse Valley;
except that Peking, being the seat of the Govern-
ment of that country, it is essential to our policy
that we should retain, not only a ready access to
that city for diplomatic purposes, but that we should
be able to make our strength felt there ; for that is
the only way to retain influence in China.

239

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Otherwise the portion of China over which it is
essential that our influence should be paramount
lies between the Shantung promontory on the north
and the Canton River on the south. North of the
Gulf of Pechili no possible combination of the
forces of other nations could check Russia’s slow
but steady advance through Mongolia and Manchu-
ria in her policy of absorption of Northern China.
Nor would such an advance by Russia through
northern inland China be detrimental to British in-
terests, provided British influence at Peking were
not to be depreciated thereby. As long as Peking
continues to be the political capital of China it is
therefore essential to our policy that Russia’s ac-
quisitions should not reach southward as far as that
capital.

The Chinese have a saying to the effect that
China is a mulberry leaf, and Russia the worm
which is devouring it piece by piece. There is no
doubt that Russia is doing, and will do, her best to
fulfil the functions of the worm in question; but a
certain amount of time is necessary, in the natural
course of things, to allow her to go through the
processes of swallowing and properly digesting the
various morsels. That Russia should absorb the
coast -line of Northern China and of the Corean
Peninsula is dead against the interests of both Brit-
ain and Japan. Japan is sufficiently harassed with
Russia as a near neighbor at the present day, and
does not in any way wish an extension of Russian
seaboard in her immediate vicinity. The reason

240

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

why it is not in Britain’s interests that Russia should
be extended in this manner is, that we have no wish
that Russian influence should be forced on Japan.
There is no doubt that England and Japan, in com-
bination, could readily check Russia’s advance along
the coast, and even keep her out of the Corean Pen-
insula altogether.

From time to time we are told that England and
Russia are on the point of coming to an understand-
ing about matters in China, and if such an under-
standing could be arrived at it would be a very
excellent thing to accomplish ; but the lines of
policy of the two countries are so entirely at vari-
ance, and our experience of understandings with
Russia has been so unsatisfactory, that it is not in
the least probable that any workable scheme, with
this end in view, could be brought about. Again,
it is difficult to see how any such scheme could be
otherwise than detrimental to the interests of Japan,
who is our natural ally, for the time being, in that
part of the world.

Of late, too, Germany has become a factor in
Northern Chinese and Japanese politics by her
acquisition of Kiao-chau, and this fact has a strong
bearing on Anglo- Japanese relations. It has be-
come our policy, quite recently, to avoid hurting
German susceptibilities, as far as possible, in our
press, and, no doubt, such a policy is a praiseworthy
one. But we must not lose sight of the fact that in
occupying a portion of the Shantung Peninsula
Germany acted under the immediate protection of

Q

241

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Russia, whose policy it was to let anybody, rather
than England, gain an ascendency in that part of
the world. The fact that Russia, by treaty with
China, had a prior claim to the occupation of Kiao-
chau, was not emphasized in the press at the time;
and, when it was mentioned, the point of view taken
was usually that Russia was performing a graceful
Mother Hubbardly action in the nature of “ giving
the poor dog a bone” ; otherwise, that she was raising
no objection to Germany, who had faithfully backed
her up in preventing the Japanese from reaping the
advantages of their war, acquiring a tardy reward for
her services.

At that time Germany’s attitude was distinctly
antagonistic to British interests; and if it is less so
now, and if the Germans have become our bona fide
friends in Far Eastern matters, the mystery as to
the cause of this change of front is not hard to
explain. The reason lies in the fact that Wei-hai-
wei is now in the hands of the British, and that,
without Wei-hai-wei, the strategical value of the
Shantung Peninsula is practically nil. Thus the
object of the Germans in taking Kiao-chau, unless
they remain on friendly terms with the holders of
Wei-hai-wei, has been negatived.

Kiao-chau by itself is practically useless either as
a strategical or commercial centre, and it was taken
by Germany merely as forming the thin edge of the
wedge, in a policy which was eventually to take the
form of commanding the southern entrance to the
Gulf of Pechili. This could only be done by means

242

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

of Wei-hai-wei, and the German dream was that,
after establishing themselves in the peninsula with
a fairly large territorial army, they would be the
natural people to take possession of that place when
the Chinese had paid off the balance of their war
indemnity, and the Japanese had, in accordance with
their treaty, evacuated it.

The taking over of Wei-hai-wei by the English
was the smartest diplomatic stroke that we have
accomplished of late years in the Far East ; and in
bringing it about, those who could read between the
lines had an opportunity of seeing, for the first time,
that we were morally aided and abetted by Japan.
At this time, and without any warning, Japan began
to press China to pay off the balance of the war
indemnity; and this was effected by means of an
arrangement in which Great Britain played an im-
portant role ; with the result that we stepped into
the occupation of Wei-hai-wei, without any sort of
resentment on the part of the Japanese, but to the
undisguised wrath of Russia, and to the conster-
nation of Germany.

But our acquisition of Wei-hai-wei is only an ad-
vantage to us as a strategical centre in so far that it
enables us to hold one of the sea keys to Peking,
and as affording us a certain power of restraining
Germany in adopting an exclusive commercial policy
in that part of the world. In the first flush of the
acquisition of their new colony there is no doubt
that it was the intention of the Germans to adopt
such a method. For, while they stated that Kiao-

243

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

chau was to be an open port, they had in effect
hedged round their compact with the Chinese with
a variety of conditions, the putting into force of
which would have practically stopped the possibility
of the people of any other country carrying on a
satisfactory trade there.

As practical people, however, they have, now that
the English hold Wei-hai-wei, come to the conclu-
sion that to reap any benefit from their colony they
will have to work with Great Britain, for the time
being, at all events.

Our alleged prospects of an understanding with
Russia and our peaceful arrangements with Ger-
many in the Far East are based on foundations
which may give way at a moment’s notice ; for
when all side issues are done away with, the fact re-
mains that Russia must be Britain’s most important
political enemy in that part of the world, and that
Germany is our most inveterate commercial oppo-
nent. Of the other two countries with whom we
have to reckon in Far Eastern politics, the United
States and France, the former cannot at the present
day be looked on in any other light than that of a
country whose sympathies and interests are identical
with our own, and on whose moral co-operation, at
all events, we could reckon in case of need ; whereas
France, whose interests are essentially confined to
Southern China, would no doubt be friendly enough
to Britain were it not for the fact that unfortunate
events of recent occurrence in other parts of the
world have had the effect of estranging French

244

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

sympathies from us. Therefore, until such time as
France shall have realized the one-sided nature of
the bargain she has made with Russia, she can
hardly be numbered among the militant friends of
Great Britain in the Far East.

Thus it is that England might have to face at
any time in that part of the world the allied
strengths of Russia, France, and Germany; which,
as far as maritime warfare is concerned, would not
be a very terrible ordeal, provided that Japan were
neutral and the United States a sympathetic on-
looker. If, however, Japan were to throw in her lot
with Russia and Germany against Britain, matters
would, of course, be very different.

But in the natural course of things such an
eventuality could not take place unless Russia and
Germany were powerful enough to force Japan into
an alliance. Extreme pressure would be required
for this, as Japan, who dislikes foreigners generally,
has a greater horror of Russia, politically speaking,
than of any other nation.

By a strange fatality, too, Germany is Japan’s
greatest commercial opponent. For while it is
mainly British and American machinery which
Japan is importing for the purposes of her new in-
dustries, she is turning out by the means of such
machines goods which compete with German rather
than with British products. It would seem, there-
fore, that political events are tending to throw Great
Britain and Japan, and possibly the United States,
into each other’s arms in the Far East, and then

245

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

comes the question as to the feasibility of a co-op-
erative arrangement between these countries.

There is no doubt that Japanese statesmen recog-
nize fully the political and commercial strength of
the Anglo-Saxon race; and there is no doubt that
as Westerners go the Japanese have a greater re-
spect for them than they have for the people of any
other countries.

At the same time the Japanese are Asiatics, and
remain Asiatics at heart; and they resent the fact
that Westerners of any sort should decide the des-
tinies of nations in that part of the world. This
very natural feeling was expressed to me by more
than one politician, and very emphatically by that
most astute of Japanese statesmen Count Okuma,
who looks upon China as the natural ally of Japan.
That this opinion is shared by those who guide the
politics of that country has been proved very clearly
to the world lately by the visit of Count Okuma’s
great political rival, the Marquis Ito, to Peking, on
the subject of Chinese reform.

The eventual ideal of the Japanese is that Japan
and China together should be able to satisfactorily
deal with Far Eastern matters, as opposed to the
ever encroaching Westerner. Japan perfectly real-
izes the impossibility of making an ally of China as
matters now go, but her ardent wish is to see the
bringing about of an enlightened China with whom
a serious compact could be made. How long that
dream will take to realize can only be a matter for
conjecture ; but pending such time the sympathies of

246

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

Japan must go out to such of the “ Western barbari-
ans ” as are most likely to enhance the prospects of
such a scheme ; and Japan has very rightly come to
the conclusion that the Anglo-Saxons are the only
people who do not wish to interfere with such a
policy. Whether English and American people are
studying their own eventual interests in endeavoring
to educate and enlighten and Christianize the Asi-
atics is quite another matter; but that we go to con-
tinual enormous expense to effect this object is be-
yond question.

Russia, of course, boasts that her success in acquir-
ing and successfully holding her extensions of ter-
ritory in Asia is mainly due to the fact that she not
only does not endeavor to educate the natives in
such territory, but that she makes it more impossi-
ble than ever for them to improve their condition in
any way, by encouraging them to retain everything
which is barbarous that they have, and by hemming
them round with that terrible official grip, which the
unfortunate natives find far more onerous than
their own laws. It has been my lot to visit, besides
Russia proper, various territories which have been
conquered, or have otherwise come under the “ pro-
tection ” of Russia in Europe and in the Far East,
and the bitter hatred against Russia in such places
is universal and extreme ; but there can be no doubt
as to the efficacy of the Russian system from their
point of view. The Japanese are aware of this, and
the system does not in the least appeal to them. It
is against Russia, her immediate and powerful

247

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

neighbor, that the modern Japanese armaments are
directed at the present day. Germany and France
are also naturally looked upon by Japan with dis-
trust, from the fact of their co-operation with Russia,
above referred to, at the close of the war with China.

These, from the Japanese point of view, are the
reasons why Japan looks with a comparatively
friendly eye on the English and the Americans of
the present day, for she feels that were Russia,
France, and Germany in combination strong enough
to enforce their will with regard to Far Eastern
matters, the political and commercial prospects of
Japan would be ruined once and for all.

Another thing which would be certain in such an
eventuality is that with the ruin of Japan the ruin
of British prestige and trade in the Far East would
come simultaneously; and it is for these reasons
that it would be in the interests of both these na-
tions to support each other’s policy.

As an ally, Japan would be at once a powerful
and a loyal co-operator. Imbued with pluck, deter-
mination, and endurance, and with a rapidly grow-
ing knowledge of modern warfare and its methods,
there is no ally from the British point of view in
that part of the world who could compare with
Japan. Together, as far as naval warfare is con-
cerned, England and Japan could at the present
day hold the position against all comers ; and the
interests and authority of these two countries could
be maintained entirely by means of naval warfare.
Neither wishes to acquire territory in Russia or in

248

JAPAN AS AN ALLY

Central China, and, in the event of war, their ener-
gies could consequently be entirely devoted to deal-
ing with the ships and holding the coast-line of the
enemy. In fact, as matters now stand, Japan and ,
England could, by playing a somewhat waiting game
after hostilities had begun, bring about a coal famine
which would cripple the whole of their opponents,
including Russia, if the season of the year were well
chosen.

CHAPTER XVI

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER THE REVISED TREATIES

By the time this book is published we shall be
within a few months of the coming into force of the
revised treaties between Japan and the outside world.

Of the sweeping changes which will take place
when the new treaties do come into force, the chief
will be the abolition of the extra-territorial rights of
resident foreigners on the one hand, and the nom-
inal throwing open to the foreigner of the whole of
the Empire of Japan for purposes of travel, trade,
residence, and the leasing of land and premises, on
the other.

In order clearly to explain what our extra-terri-
torial rights in Japan amount to, I quote the words
of that great academical authority on the institutions
of that country, Mr. Basil Hall Chamberlain :

“ ... If an Englishman commits a theft, he is tried, not by a
Japanese judge, but by the nearest British consular court. In civil
cases where one party is a Japanese and the other a foreigner, the
suit is carried into the court of the defendant’s nationality. If I
want to sue a Japanese, I must sue him in a Japanese court; but a
Japanese sues me in a British court. A corollary to this is that the
interior of Japan remains closed to foreign residence and foreign
trade — even to foreign travel except with passports — it being evi-
dently undesirable that a country should harbor persons not ame-

250

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER REVISED TREATIES

nable to its laws. Foreigners are therefore restricted to Yokohama,
Kobe, and the other ‘ Treaty-ports.’

“ Extra-territoriality, claimed thirty years ago as the only modus
vivendi which could render the existence of civilized Christian
beings endurable in the Japan of those days, has since then been
violently assailed by some as unjust to Japan, whose independent
sovereign rights it is held to infringe. Thus, the partisans of extra-
territoriality found their arguments on alleged practical utility,
whereas its opponents reason deductively from considerations of
abstract right. Meantime, in view of Japan’s frank adoption of
European culture, the controversy has been closed by surrender on
the foreign side. According to treaties recently concluded, all
foreigners will come under Japanese law about the close of the
century.”

Resident foreigners very naturally do not at all
relish the prospect of coming under Japanese juris-
diction, after having enjoyed their extra-territorial
rights for over thirty years. But our quid pro quo is,
as above explained, the throwing open of the country
to us. There are people who maintain that this last
privilege amounts to nothing in reality, as we have
for some years past enjoyed the privilege of trav-
elling all over Japan, provided that we were armed
with a passport, easily obtainable, and the formal-
ities respecting which did not entail any trouble,
provided that we could produce it when required.

As matters stand, until the revised treaties come
into force, the foreigner is allowed to travel without
his passport only within the limits of a circle having
a radius of 2\\ miles round the various treaty-ports,
and to reside only in certain specified concessions
within these limits.

Not only, however, can one travel all over the
country with a passport, as mentioned above, but
by going through the formality of taking a nomi-

251

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

nal employment under a Japanese subject, any fairly
well-behaved foreigner can obtain permission from
the Government to reside in almost any part of the
country.

We cannot, however, carry on a trade, commerce,
or industry outside treaty limits. But even this
event is to be got over, when required, by simply
carrying on such trade in the name of a Japanese
friend. When such a course is adopted, the busi-
ness in question belongs in practice as well as in
theory to the Japanese man of straw; and, as ex-
plained earlier in this book, if such a man should
turn out to be dishonest, his European partner can-
not make good any claim against him for defalca-
tion.

It speaks well for that Japanese business morality,
which is so often maligned, that a partnership on
these lines could be carried on at all under such con-
ditions, and I am bound to say that I have heard of
very few cases where the Japanese have taken unfair
advantage of their position.

The most striking instance of Japanese abusing
the confidence of foreigners who had reposed this
sort of trust in them was afforded by those converts
to Christianity referred to in a previous chapter;
who, as soon as they considered themselves strong
enough in the knowledge of their new faith to con-
duct it in their own manner, turned out the Ameri-
can missionaries who had founded, built, and organ-
ized the “Christian University of Kioto.” This,
however, can hardly be classed as a commercial

252

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER REVISED TREATIES

fraud, as, although it is very usual in Japan for mis-
sionaries to mix Christianity with commerce, this
particular college was not a trading concern.

Although it has been possible under existing cir-
cumstances to find certain Japanese subjects suffi-
ciently honorable to make it worth the while of the
foreigner to use them as nominal partners, and to
set up his business in the interior while having no
legal rights, it stands to reason that the revised
treaties which will give the foreigner the power to
work such a business on his own account, and on
an equal footing with the people of the country, will
afford an incentive to foreign enterprise in this di-
rection which has never yet existed.

There are people who maintain that the clauses
of the treaty as regards tenure of land by the for-
eigner are so unsatisfactorily worded that they will
not offer any inducement to him to embark his
capital in industrial enterprises. I do not hold this
opinion myself, because I am quite sure that under
the new treaties the foreigner in Japan will be vastly
better off under Japanese jurisdiction than he is in
a dozen other countries where he successfully em-
ploys his capital in this manner.

This much disputed question as to the possibility
of extension of trading and industrial facilities rep-
resents, I take it, almost the only available asset in
the way of a tangible advantage which the foreigner
has gained by his new treaties with Japan. Such
as it is, we, as Englishmen, cannot claim to have
secured it; for though, as foreign interests go in

253

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Japan, the British interests preponderate over all
the others, it was we who, being the first to con-
clude an imperfectly considered treaty with Japan,
irrevocably damaged the prospects of our fellow-
countrymen at present residing in that country.

The example afforded by Britain was more or
less promptly followed by other countries, and all
the important Powers signed treaties of a similar
nature with Japan. Fortunately for us, however,
some of the other Governments, notably those of
France and Germany, looked into the matter rather
more closely than we did, and insisted on certain of
the more glaring defects in our treaty being partial-
ly rectified in theirs ; and of course we benefit by
such modifications under “ the most favored nation
clause.” The fact, however, of Great Britain having
actually signed her ill-considered treaty on certain
lines hampered the action of the other Powers, by
making it much more difficult for them to insist
upon important alterations.

The result of this has been that Japan’s diplo-
matic victory over all the civilized Powers of the
world has been in many ways more decisive and
important than her strategical victory over China.

When Lord Kimberley signed our revised treaty
with Japan in 1894, the voice of the “ Little Eng-
lander ” was more powerful than it is to-day. The
consequence was that the strong protests of our
compatriots in the treaty-ports of Japan against the
wording of the treaty were, to the everlasting dis-
grace of our Home Government, unheeded.

254

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER REVISED TREATIES

Once more I would quote from Mr. Chamber-
lain’s book, where, in a postscript on the subject of
“Treaties and Treaty Revision,” he holds out the
following appalling estimate of our prospects :

“As the date for the enforcement of the treaty draws near, and
men have to make arrangements accordingly, they find themselves
confronted with obstacles which could never have arisen had the
negotiators exercised ordinary foresight. The ambiguity of the doc-
ument is not the least of its defects. A careful consideration of
what was not stipulated for, as well as what was, shows that under
the new treaty British subjects may not improbably lose their priv-
ilege of publishing newspapers and holding public meetings — in a
word, their birthright of free speech ; and that it is doubtful whether
their doctors and lawyers will be allowed to practise without a Jap-
anese diploma. Even the period for which leases can be held was
left so uncertain as to have become the subject of endless contro-
versy ; the conditions of the sale and repurchase of leases, in what
had hitherto been the foreign “ concessions,” were left uncertain ;
the right to employ labor and to start industries was left uncertain.
With things in this state, with the great English steamship com-
panies, the P. & O. and Canadian Pacific, probably prevented from
carrying passengers between the ports, and with new duties of from
30 to 40 per cent, levied precisely on those articles which are prime
necessities to us but not to the Japanese, could any one imagine
such terms having ever been agreed to except as the result of a
disastrous war.”

While there is no doubt that Mr. Chamberlain is
perfectly justified in what he says in regard to the
unsatisfactory nature of this treaty, and while our
Government was guilty of culpable negligence in
not considering all the points now raised before
concluding the treaty, I cannot help thinking that
many writers have taken an unduly pessimistic view
of our prospects under tne new regime.

It is premature, and possibly wrong, to assume
that the Japanese will be so ill-advised as to en-

255

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

deavor to render the position of the foreigner un-
tenable in Japan, for the simple reason that their
own interests must, in the long-run, lie in the oppo-
site direction.

Undoubtedly it was high time for extra-territori-
ality to be abolished in Japan. British subjects
stand in far greater need of such rights in any of
the South American Republics, the Transvaal,
Spain, Portugal, and Russia, than they do in
Japan at the present day; and yet our business
men live and thrive in all those countries, and gen-
erally speaking, it would seem that our Government
is capable of efficiently safeguarding our interests
abroad.

To sum the matter up, it may be said that, in
concluding our new treaty with Japan, we have done
the right thing, but have done it wellnigh as badly
as it could have been done. Now that it is con-
cluded and past reconsideration, its theoretical side
is not so important as the practical question as to
how we shall stand in Japan when once these
treaties come into force.

English business men in Japan, as a rule, are
strong in their opinion that the treaties will ruin
them, and many of them will doubtless look upon
the criticisms on which I have ventured above as
being vastly too mild. But I cannot help feeling
that the dismay of such people as to their future
prospects is mainly due to the fact that most of
them have never known other conditions of trade,
and that they attach too much value to the whole-

256

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER REVISED TREATIES

some, but sometimes misleading conviction, that
satisfactory trade can only be carried on under
British legislation.

The Japan Gazette has constituted itself the
champion of the malcontents in this way, and,
while it has no doubt done some good in pointing
out certain weak features in the new treaties, it has
sometimes adopted so exaggerated a tone that were
this journal to be read outside japan its statements
would prove very misleading, both as regards the
actual provisions of the treaties and the spirit in
which these clauses are intended to be read. Local
people, however, who read the paper in question, are
able to make allowances for these exaggerations, and
to form their own opinions accordingly.

The effect of the aggressive tone on the part of
some of the foreign treaty-port journals on the sub-
ject of treaty revision has been to awaken a some-
what similarly hostile attitude in the Japanese press.
In consequence of this, a bitterness and acrimony
which are greatly to be deplored have been im-
ported into these delicate questions, the satisfactory
solution of which can only be brought about by
calm and reasonable discussion.

Thus on the one side we learn from treaty-port
papers that our rights of carrying on trade are to
be abolished; our houses are no longer to be our
castles; we are to be subject to every conceivable
annoyance and inconvenience at the hands of the
Japanese officials; we are to be robbed, squeezed,
black-mailed, etc., with impunity, and dragged before

257

R

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

an unjust tribunal, conducted by Asiatics whose only
notion of meting out justice to the hated Westerner
will be to suppress him by fair means or foul.

We are told that we must fight against this sort
of oppression. I should think we must, if it were to
exist. We must teach the Japanese that a success-
ful war with an effete nation like the Chinese does
not enable them to ride roughshod over the rights
of the white man, and so on, and so on. This is
the gist of the treaty-port logic, as far as the journals
are concerned; and it is all very well as far as it
goes. It appertains to that ever-popular style of
cheap patriotism of the “ Britons never shall be
slaves” class, which, however sound in itself, loses
much of its point when the alleged opposing party
has neither the wish nor the power to reduce us to
that unfortunate condition.

All this, however, has had the effect of causing
certain fiery Japanese orators to talk of “ enforcing’’
the conditions of the new treaties; and agitations
have been set on foot with a view of determining the
best method of carrying out such “ enforcement.” If
the exaggerated views propounded by these ultra
anti-foreign politicians were to be put into effect the
practice of the working of the new treaties would
not at all accord with the theory of those who framed
them.

Thus a great deal has been said on both sides
which with advantage might have been left unsaid,
and it is a cause for satisfaction to find that, as a
rule, the responsible politicians and diplomatists who

258

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER REVISED TREATIES

will have to see to the proper carrying out of this
delicate task of making the change have not been in-
fluenced by the views of the extremists on either side.

In spite of all the alarmist theories, the unprej-
udiced man, who has had any experience of the
world in general, cannot make up his mind to be
vastly uneasy as to the way in which the new treaties
will operate.

They may be in many ways unsatisfactory, no
doubt they are ; but it is either too late or too early
to talk much of that now; for, even if there were
a serious wish to alter them on one or other side,
there is not the slightest probability as to their being
modified now until they have had a fair trial.

Certain local foreigners seem to hold the opinion
that with the abolition of our extra-territorial rights
our political influence in Japan will be, ipso facto ,
abolished with them. But it is to be presumed
that our diplomatic and consular staff will be per-
fectly able to safeguard the interests of our people
living in Japan.

As pointed out in another chapter, the Japanese
legal code is an excellent one ; the men who govern
in that country are, as a rule, level-headed and
competent; they enforce their laws equitably and
without unduly oppressive measures being taken,
and they are beginning to recognize that the for-
eigner, however little they may like him as an in-
stitution, is, at all events, a necessity — a necessity,
that is, to the fulfilment of their progressive inter-
national policy.

259

JAPAN IN TRANSITION

Another and often unnoticed phase of this ques-
tion is that, while we (the foreigners) are bitterly
complaining of the hardships we are to suffer on ac-
count of these treaties, the Japanese on their part do
not consider that the throwing open of their country
will by any means be an unmixed blessing to them.

The possession of extra-territorial rights by the
foreigner has for years past been a thorn in the side
of Japanese self-respect, and in order to have this
abolished, they consider that they have given a very
substantial quid pro quo in admitting the foreigner
to all parts of their Empire on an equal footing with
themselves.

The Japanese are said to wish to obtain all the
advantages of the opportunities afforded by our
civilization without incurring any of its drawbacks;
they would have foreign capital without an increase
in foreign influence ; and they would have foreign
trade without the foreign trader. All this may be
very natural, though it is undoubtedly unreasonable.
But until the Japanese have solved the difficult
problem of “ having their pudding and eating it ”
they will not be able at once to modernize them-
selves and blot out the foreigner and his influence.

Thus it is that they are opening their country to
us ; but they are doing it with very great reluctance.

No doubt in its initial stages the forthcoming
regime may fall very heavily on certain individual
traders, for the conditions of trading will of necessity
be revolutionized.

The great and overwhelming advantage, alike to

260

OUR PROSPECTS UNDER REVISED TREATIES

Japanese and to foreigners, to be found in the pro-
visions of the treaties, lies in the fact that life under
the new conditions will enable each to know more
of the other, as international intercourse will be less
restrained. It is to be hoped that the result will be
that both will learn to know and respect the other
more than at present.

If such is to be the case, both sides will have
cause to congratulate themselves ; and, whatever
may be the eventual solution of the modern policy
of the Japanese nation, it is to be sincerely hoped
that British and Japanese interests may remain as
they are at present — practically identical.

Let us hope, too, that in adopting so many of our
Western methods, they will never allow to die out
the many excellent qualities which characterized the
Old Japan, that Japan which we are so often told
no longer exists — the Japan of Mitford and Lafcadio
Hearn ; a far more aesthetic and possibly more vir-
tuous country than the one it has been my lot to
write about as “Japan in Transition.”

261

THE END

BOOKS ON CHINA

THE BREAK-UP OF CHINA. By Lord Charles Beres-
ford. 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top,
$ 3 °°-

By all odds the most important contribution of the year to contemporary
history is Lord Charles Bereford’s “ The Break-up of China.” It is a book
that is of supreme interest not only to statesmen, merchants, and students of
political and commercial affairs, but also to all intelligent readers. The
author has amassed a fund of information wholly new and which will render
his book indispensable. No writer on China, alive or dead, British or Amer-
ican, has enjoyed the advantages which Lord Beresford has utilized in his
book with such signal ability. He is entirely free from all personal bias,
and he has a human and a racy method of stating facts which will appeal
strongly to all readers.

Without question this book marks a new epoch in the much - discussed
question of trade in the Far East, because for the first time the people of the
United States have set before them a calm, straightforward statement of the
situation in the East to - day, of the difficulties that beset the foreign mer-
chant in China, and of the close connection that exists there between diplo-
matic aud political affairs. — N. Y. Times.

CHINA IN TRANSFORMATION. By Archibald R. Col-
quhoun. With Frontispiece, Maps, and Diagrams. 8vo,
Cloth, Ornamental, $3 00.

It is published most opportunely, and gives a most valuable summary of
the situation, commercial and political, up to date, with opinions and sug-
gestions by a thoroughly experienced and competent expert. — The Saturday
Review, London.

ALONE IN CHINA, and Other Stories. By Julian Ralph.
Illustrated by C. D. Weldon. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental,
$2 00.

Contents: Introduction — House -boating in China: Alone in China:
Plum-blossom : Beebe’s Adventures : The Story of Miss Pi : The “ Boss ”
of Ling-Foo: Little Fairy’s Constancy: The Love-Letters of Superfine
Gold.

Mr. Ralph’s book is a delightful addition to our literature relative to
China, and is sure to be of permanent importance and value. It has literary
merit of a high order. — Brooklyn Eagle.

HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers

NEW YORK AND LONDON

H@$~Any of the above works will be sent by mail, postage prepaid , to any
part of the United States, Canada , or Mexico , on receipt of the price.

I

BOOKS ON JAPAN

NOTES IN JAPAN. By Alfred Parsons. Illustrated by the
Author. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $3 00.

Here at last we have a book on Japan that is as profitable as it is unpre-
tending. Mr. Parsons’ narrative of his wanderings in that delightful land is
artless, in the usual sense of the word, and free equally from padding and
from exaggeration. In addition it is really illustrated, not with smudgy re-
productions of soulless photographs, but with carefully executed presentments
of his own sketches. — Athenceum, London.

Must be classed among the most elegant books of travel of the year. The
illustrations, of which there are almost as many as pages of text, are supplied
by the author, whose genius and skill are too well known to need comment.
All that is curious and fanciful in Japan he saw with an artist’s eye, and with
an artist’s skill has put it into this elegantly printed volume. — Bookseller ,
Newsdealer , and Stationer , N. Y.

A unique book, full of charm and delight, and in some respects unap-
proachable.— Critic , N. Y.

JINRIKISHA DAYS IN JAPAN. By Eliza Ruhamah Scid-
more. Illustrated. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $ 2 00 ;
Paper, 75 cents.

It is a bright, lively, and entertaining picture of Japan in its transition
state from a feudal and hermit nation to a modern state full of people, who
have voluntarily taken upon themselves the problem of adapting Western
civilization to essentially Asiatic conditions. . . . The chief element of
freshness in it is the author’s sympathetic knowledge of the folk-lore and
history of the land and people. — Nation , N. Y.

A most excellent and readable picture of life in Japan, in its public and
in its most intimate aspects. The volume is very brightly and chattily written,
and is one of the most vivid and entertaining of its class. — Courier , Boston.

The volume is a timely and important contribution to our knowledge of
Japan, containing descriptions of the most interesting localities in the coun-
try, with chapters on a variety of entertaining themes connected with Japan-
ese life and manners. — American Bookseller , N. Y.

JAPANESE HOMES AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS.
By Edward S. Morse. With Illustrations by the Author.
New Edition. 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $3 00.

The style is easy, and the author knows his subject, and enlists the sym-
pathy of the reader. Above all, the illustrations, which are the author’s own,
are not only accurate portraitures of the ins and outs, quaint corners, and
novel arrangements of a Japanese interior, but are really beautiful specimens
of xylography. — Spectator , London.

HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers

NEW YORK AND LONDON

Any of the above works will be sent by mail , postage prepaid , to any
part of the United States , Canada , or Mexico, on receipt of the price.

2

BOOKS ON ASIA

THROUGH ASIA. By Sven Hedin. With Two Maps and
Four Plates Printed in Colors, and about 280 Illustrations by
the Author and from Photographs. Two Volumes. Large
8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $10 00.

There is not a particle of doubt that in these magnificent volumes we
have the most important contribution to Central Asian geography that has
been made for many years. — Spectator, London.

One cannot read many pages of Dr. Hedin’s great work without being
conscious that he maintains an exceptionally lofty level both as an observer
and as a writer. He has a high conception of the function of an explorer
and is not unconscious of his own qualifications to fulfil that function. It is
impossible to give an adequate idea of the richness of the contents of his
book nor of its abounding attractions as a story of travel, unsurpassed in
geographical and human interest. Altogether the work is one which in
solidity, novelty, and interest must take a first rank among publications of
its class. — London Times.

IN THE FORBIDDEN LAND. An Account of a Journey into
Tibet, Capture by the Tibetan Lamas and Soldiers, Impris-
onment, Torture, and Ultimate Release, brought about by
Dr. Wilson and the Political Peshkar Karak Sing-Pal. By A.
Henry Savage Landor. With the Government Enquiry
and Report and other Official Documents, by J. Larkin,
Esq., Deputed by the Government of India. With One Pho-
togravure, Eight Colored Plates, Fifty Full -page and about
One Hundred and Fifty Text Illustrations, and a Map from
Surveys by the Author. Two Volumes. 8 vo, Cloth, Orna-
mental, Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $9 00

He tells a plain, manly tale without affectation or bravado, and it is a
book that will be read with interest and excitement, even in those parts of
it which only describe a journey through an unknown region. — London Times.

A very remarkable work from whatever point of view it may be read,
and one which will insure its author distinct and prominent place among
European travellers of the nineteenth century. — N. Y. Mail and Express.

It is a book easy to read and hard to put down for the scene is con-
stantly changing, the action is full of surprises, and the description of scenery
enhances the significance of the occurrences described. — N. V. Tribune.

HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers

NEW YORK AND LONDON

Either of the above works will be sent by mail , postage prepaid , to any
part of the United States , Canada, or Mexico , on receipt of the price.

3

ARCTIC TRAVELS

A THOUSAND DAYS IN THE ARCTIC. By Frederick
G. Jackson. Copiously Illustrated from Photographs and
Drawings. Maps. 8vo, Cloth, Uncut Edges and Gilt Top,
$6 oo.

This is the history of the now famous Jackson- Harms worth expedition,
which incidentally found Nansen and his companion. The tale is told with
rare felicity, being interesting from first page to last — far more exciting than
the best story of adventure ever written. The illustrations are among the
best ever published in a story of this kind. — N. Y. Mail and Express.

It is an unusual story of pioneer enterprise and adventure, well told by
a man who lived so long among the scenes he depicts as to know them thor-
oughly.— N. Y. Sun.

Mr. Jackson has written an interesting and a modest record, which is
what one might expect from an interesting and a modest man. — Chicago
Tribune.

FARTHEST NORTH. By Fridtjof Nansen. Being the
Record of a Voyage of Exploration of the Ship Fram (1893-
1896), and of a Fifteen Months’ Sleigh Expedition by Dr.
Nansen and Lieutenant Johansen. With an Appendix by
Otto Sverdrup, Captain of the Fram. With over 100 Full-
page and Numerous Text Illustrations, Sixteen Colored
Plates in Facsimile from Dr. Nansen’s own Water-color, Pas-
tel, and Pencil Sketches, an Etched Portrait, Two Photo-
gravures, and Four Maps. Two Volumes. Large 8vo, Cloth,
Uncut Edges and Gilt Tops, $10 00; Half Leather, $12 50;
Three-quarter Morocco, $15 00. Popular Edition. One
Volume. With Sixteen Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00.
Stanley’s “Through the Dark Continent” is the only work of recent
years that can compare with Nansen’s in importance, daring, and adventure.
— Chicago Tribune.

It is a story that will live through age after age. — London Chronicle.

It is not too much to say that the book is a masterpiece of story-telling.
— London Times.

Not more than once in a generation, if as often as that, is such a narra-
tive presented to the world. — N. Y. Tribune.

HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers

NEW YORK AND LONDON

Either of the above works will be sent by mail , postage prepaid , to any
part of the United States , Canada , or Mexico , on receipt of the price.

4

.

DATE DUE

T -

GAYLORD

PRINTED IN U.S. A.